Terim confident Galatasaray can beat Schalke
Galatasaray head coach Faith Terim believes his side will be able to beat an "improved" Schalke side in the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie.
By FOX SPORTS Staff
Schalke and Gala played out an enthralling 1-1 draw in the first leg of the tie in Istanbul, with Jermaine Jones cancelling out Burak Yılmaz's opening goal to hand the German outfit a precious away goal.
Despite being at a slight disadvantage, Terim believes his side will be able to grind out a win in Germany and secure passage into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
"Schalke have improved enormously since our first meeting, getting better week after week," Terim was quoted as saying by the official Champions League website.
"They have an advantage with the away goal. We are up against very good opponents, who deserve our respect.
"However, we are also a good team with a certain level of experience in Europe. We have been in situations like this before and know what is expected."
Terim also declared that his players were more than prepared to step up their game on Tuesday and pinpointed midfielder Wesley Sneijder as a key player to his side's fortunes.
"I have great faith in my players," Terim added.
"They have prepared very well for the game and are full of confidence. We want to win tomorrow [Tuesday] and we are ready to give everything it takes to do so.
"I believe there is a very good chance we will leave Schalke with a victory. I also hope we have better luck this time and avoid hitting the woodwork so often.
"[Wesley] Sneijder is an important player for us and I assume he will play tomorrow [Tuesday].
"If you look at the first leg, 1-1 does not sound like such a great result for us, but we had lots of good chances to extend our lead.
"Everyone knows how well Schalke have been playing over the past few weeks, beating Dortmund in the process.
"I don't expect league form to count for much, though.
"Anything can happen, even if we concede early on - anything but a win would be extremely disappointing for us."
While Schalke warmed up for the tie with a morale-boosting 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund over the weekend, Gala fell to a surprise 1-0 defeat to Gençlerbirliği SK in the Turkish Super Lig.