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After the defeat suffered on Saturday and the loss of the Bundesliga leaders position, the head coach of Gelsenkirchen, Mirko Slomka, stated that his players should not be written off in the fight for the German champions title.
Schalke had a one-point advantage before Saturday's match against Borussia Dortmund, but the Gelsenkirchen club lost away and was overtaken by Stuttgart, who defeated Bochum 3-2 away.
Stuttgart can secure the champions title on Saturday by defeating Energie Cottbus, who are in the middle of the table. Meanwhile, Schalke not only needs to hope for Stuttgart's failure, but also to defeat Arminia Bielefeld at home.
"I am very sorry for my players," M.Slomka said after Saturday's defeat. "It is hard to believe that we may fail. However, the most important thing is to win our last game and secure at least the second place. And then we will see, maybe luck will smile upon us. The season has been very strange, so why couldn't it end strangely?"
Meanwhile, Stuttgart's head coach Armin Veh, whose team were down twice in the match against Bochum but eventually won 3-2, did not rush to crown his players champions.
"Forgive me if I sound boring, but there are still matches left until the end of the championship," said the coach. "The media in Europe has already crowned several teams champions ahead of time. We are not champions yet."
