Schalke

Along with the ongoing tournaments such as the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, Primeria, the Champions League is also in progress. This league incorporates a range of clubs from all of the leagues across Europe and is a widely celebrated by fans worldwide as they cheer on their favourite soccer team once more. Currently in the group stages, the Champions League is where clubs across the globe compete on the soccer field to eventually lift the trophy at the end of the games – thus gaining Champions status.

Within this blog post we will take a look at how the tournament is panning out at the moment and what we can expect from the clubs in the coming weeks. From looking at how the matches have been scheduled and the groups picked, to the highest scoring player and team, you will find out all about this here.

How are the Teams Grouped?

After the initial play-offs had taken place prior to the scheduled group matches, the teams were whittled down to the

Established in 1963, the Bundesliga league is the top-flight soccer tournament which takes place in Germany. The founding members of this were Werder Bremen, Schalke 04, FC Koln, Hertha BSC, Hamburger SV, Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart. Also, they have most recently welcomed RB Leipzig back in 2016. With such a fantastic mix of teams, this league is most definitely one to look out for this season.

With the beginning of the 2018/19 fixtures just around the corner, we wanted to put together this article to explore the scheduling of the games. From who has the best stakes at getting to the final, to how the overall tournament could turn out, this post covers it.

Fixtures and Notable Dates

The beginning of this year’s tournament kicks off on the 24^th August 2018 and is expected to end on the 18^th May 2019. Starting off the fixtures, current Champions Bayern Munich play in their home grounds at Allianz Stadium against Hoffenheim. And the

With the setup of the summer transfer window reportedly meant to be changing, where the business completed by the teams will have to be done before the new season starts, most clubs and managers will have to prepare themselves by creating a small list of targets before the current campaign is over.  

Sometimes, the best way to be effective within the market and be one step ahead of the other teams is by looking out for which individuals are close to being available on a free transfer. One of the huge factors to this, is that a potential club can negotiate and come to an agreement with a player that is in the final six months of his contract to go on to completing a move to his next destination on a summer Bosman move.

Here are the six European players that will become a free agent at the end of the season...

• Bundesliga – FC Schalke’s Max Meyer

Although the big sides in Europe tend to focus on bringing in central midfielders

22nd December 2017.

As the January transfer window is just around the corner, clubs all over Europe will be discussing their plans to bring in the targets they have identified.

Historically, January has been a time period where you might find a bargain in the market, due to the player forcing his way out of the club, or because their contract is expiring in six months' time.

With that being said, here are the three best free transfers available in Europe right now:

Mesut Özil Arsenal

The German's next club, should he leave Arsenal, will realise that they have secured one of the biggest bargains of the last decade.

It has been surprising to see the Gunners allow Mesut Özil to run down his contract with no contingency plan involved, and so there is no surprise to see a number of teams interested in signing the World Cup winner when his contract expires next June.

Özil is in the position now, coming into January, where he can

20th October 2017. By Edward Stratmann.
Despite playing in an unfamiliar position at the base of midfield, Max Meyer encouragingly adapted superbly to his role in Schalke's resounding 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin.

Normally deployed as an attacking midfielder, the diminutive 22-year-old produced a classy performance in his new position, as he was especially crucial in animating his team's offensive passages from deep.

Seeing as Hertha defended in their 4-4-2 formation, Meyer was crucial in ensuring his wide splitting three central defenders, Benjamin Stambouli, Naldo and Thilo Kehrer, had huge openings in the half spaces to dribble forward into midfield. With Meyer regularly being man marked by his opponent, Ondrej Duda, meaning he couldn't always viably receive possession, Meyer used this to his advantage to draw his opponent with him and away from said areas to manufacture clear space for his aforementioned defenders to exploit.

There were, however, plenty

11th October 2017. By Ryan Baldi.
It's still a long way off, with plenty of football to be played between now and then and ample opportunity for best laid plans to be scuppered by fate, but next summer is already shaping up to be the summer of Leon Goretzka.

The German midfielder is on the wanted list of pretty much every major European club, with Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Barcelona all reported to be monitoring his progress at Schalke. And with next year's World Cup in Russia creeping into view, the 22-year-old's rise to prominence on the international scene is set to see him become a key player for the reigning champions and current pre-tournament favourites.

The young central midfielder has every trait desirable in the perfect player for his position: he's physically imposing at 6ft 2ins and athletic; he's

29th August 2016. By Edward Stratmann.

After enjoying a breakout season in 2014/2015, where he became an integral member of Mauricio Pochettino's fierce Tottenham Hotspur side, Nabil Bentaleb's fall down Pochettino's pecking order last campaign was as rapid as his initial rise to prominence.

Starting 25 matches in 2014/2015, the Algerian international looked set for and long and fruitful career with Spurs, with his stirring performances even earning him a bumper five-year contract at the club. But due to a numbers of factors, including injury, a downturn in form, the emergence of Eric Dier and what's been described as a questionable attitude, the Spurs academy graduate found himself left out in the cold last term.

The fact he played just 168 Premier League minutes aptly illustrated his plight and how harsh Pochettino can be once his faith in a player wanes. Being

By Greg Lea.

It was a rule change that, in hindsight, should really have been introduced sooner. When Uefa decided in 2014 that future winners of the Europa League would automatically qualify for the following season's Champions League, the tournament was given a new dimension and its participants another incentive to take it seriously.

Sevilla were the first club to benefit from the amendment, with their 3-2 triumph over Ukranian outfit Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the final last May allowing them to enter the group stage of Europe's primary club competition this term despite only finishing fifth in La Liga. The Rojiblancos, who have won the tournament in each of the last two years and four times since 2006, are in a similar position this time around, too: ahead of the first leg of their round of 32 tie with Molde on Thursday, Sevilla's best chance of qualifying for the Champions League is by winning the Europa League once again.

In that respect, Unai Emery's

Though they haven't won a German Championship title since 1958, FC Schalke 04 have built a fairly solid reputation for always landing in the upper echelons of the league standings table. In 2001, 2005, 2007, and 2010, they ended their seasons as Bundesliga runner-up. In 2012 and 2014, they finished third. In 2013, they ended up fourth.

Still, despite Schalke 04's recent solid track record for qualifying for the Champions League, the football club have also hit a few bumps along the way that have made them harder to bet on than some other teams in the German top-flight. In 2011, for instance, the Miners fell from second place to 14^th in the space of a single season. And last year, the soccer team missed out on the Champions League, finishing sixth.

The Underdogs

Unfortunately, it looks like the 2015 2016 season could mark Schalke's second missed Champions League chance in a row. Halfway through the Bundesliga

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have both had their ups and downs so far in the 2015 2016 season, with the former replacing their coach and the latter going through an early dry spell that saw star striker Harry Kane playing at a lower-than-expected level. However, after week five both teams have secured spots in the Europa League 201516 knockout phase, marking a turn in the fortunes of both clubs.

The Reds and the Spurs are two of the 15 teams in this year's Europa League that, with just one game day remaining in the group stage, have officially earned advancement into the knockouts. That statistic leaves nine slots up for grabs, with the remaining eight to be filled by third-place squads from the Champions League.

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A Solid Premier League Showing

Liverpool secured their