Dimitrios Grammozis: Use our momentum to reach the next round | OneFootball

Busy week ahead for the Royal Blues: Just three days after the 3-0 home win against Dynamo Dresden, FC Schalke 04 will be in DFB-Pokal action away to TSV 1860 München. For Dimitrios Grammozis and his players, the goal is reaching the next round, but the head coach has stressed that Tuesday evening’s game will be anything but easy.

“The expectation when playing against a team from the league below is to progress to the next round,” said the boss, who is expecting a “real cup game atmosphere, just the way it should be,” under the lights in Munich’s Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße. “The hosts will throw everything at us and won’t give us an inch of space,” said the 43-year-old: “But we are prepared for that,” he added.

The ‘Lions’ actually reached the second round by beating a Bundesliga 2 team. Their first round tie against SV Darmstadt 98 went all the way to penalties, where TSV 1860 München prevailed 5-4 winners. The score after 120 minutes of football was 1-1, which happens to be something of a default result for 1860 this year. Seven of their games in the third division have ended at one goal apiece. “They’ve drawn an awful lot of games recently, but they could have won a lot of these games,” said Grammozis, who has the opposition down as a team that “wants to play football.”

The Knappen, on the other hand, have not been drawing their games of late. In fact, they’ve won each of their last four – keeping a clean sheet in every game. Grammozis wants to use this momentum to Schalke’s advantage in Munich. The post-match scenes on Saturday also benefited the team, Grammozis explained: “The atmosphere after the game was outstanding, the players really made the most of celebrating the victory with the fans – the connection between the supporters and the players was phenomenal.”

Grammozis has emphasised the importance of his team not taking their foot off the gas, despite the recent string of good results. “Nothing will be handed to us on a plate. We need to work hard for every result and that will be no different in Munich,” said the head coach.

There could be a few new faces in the Schalke line-up at the Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße, due to the next league game falling as soon as Friday (29th October) in Heidenheim, which will complete a trio of games in the space of six days. Grammozis has not revealed anything more specific about the starting XI, however, which, “out of principle,” he never does. “We need to find the right balance in the next two games and try to win both. We’re not going to Munich to experiment with our team.”

The squad, on the other hand, should remain largely unchanged as it heads to the south of Germany this week. Dominick Drexler, who was ruled out of the home game against Dresden with a flesh wound, could be back in the team. “The wound is healing well, but the midweek cup game at least could be a bit too soon,” said Grammozis.