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Miron Muslic: The team are fully focused on the task ahead
Excitement is building as FC Schalke 04 prepare to get their 2026/27 competitive campaign underway on Monday evening (24/8), when they travel to Hallescher FC in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Head coach Miron Muslic is pleased with how pre-season went ahead of the 20:45 CEST kick-off against the fourth-tier side.
Seven weeks have passed since the Royal Blues returned for pre-season, with a training camp and seven friendlies packed into that period. “We needed a demanding pre-season like this. It was the foundation for the intensity we played with last year as well,” explained Muslic. “We’ll need the same again this season, only at an even higher level. That’s why we pushed the players even harder this time, and the lads have handled it brilliantly.”
Schalke rounded off pre-season with two home friendlies at the VELTINS-Arena against Atalanta and Real Madrid, losing both 3-0. Facing two sides used to playing in the Champions League provided exactly the kind of stern test the Royal Blues wanted in the final fortnight before the season. “We deliberately made those games as demanding as possible because we wanted to learn as much as we could from them and take those lessons into the new season,” said the Schalke boss.
Monday’s trip to the fourth-division side will present a completely different challenge, one the 43-year-old compared to last season’s cup opener at 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig. “It was a similar kind of game back then. My team know exactly what’s required and are fully focused on the task in Halle.”
Karaman the only absentee in Halle
HFC are already well into their new Regionalliga campaign and have played five competitive matches. A 1-0 win away to BSG Chemie Leipzig was followed by draws against Greifswalder FC (2-2), Rot-Weiß Erfurt (1-1) and Chemnitzer FC (0-0), before a 2-1 defeat at VSG Altglienicke last time out marked their first loss of the season. “That certainly won’t have been the start our opponents were hoping for,” said Muslic. “That will only make Halle even more determined against us on Monday evening, but we’re prepared for whatever the game brings and want to impose ourselves on them.”
Captain Kenan Karaman will miss the game after recently undergoing treatment after landing on his hip during the friendly against Atalanta. The armband will instead go to one of his deputies, Timo Becker or Nikola Katic. Both are part of Schalke’s leadership group for the new season alongside Karaman, Loris Karius, Ron Schallenberg and Edin Džeko.
