Roberto Di Matteo plans his second win

Roberto Di Matteo

Schalke's coach Roberto Di Matteo is looking to pick up the second win of his fledgling Royal Blues' career when they host Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The 44-year-old, who led Chelsea to the premier European club title in 2012 during his eight-month reign at Stamford Bridge, enjoyed a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin on his Bundesliga debut on Saturday.
The ex-Italy midfielder took charge a fortnight ago after Schalke sacked Jens Keller following a poor start to the season which left them 11th in the table.
Having earned a point from their 1-1 draw at Group G leaders Chelsea in September, Schalke are second to the Premier League side with two points compared to Chelsea's four.
Di Matteo's Schalke host Chelsea in Gelsenkirchen on November 25, but for now the new Royal Blues' boss is concentrating on bottom side Sporting at the Veltins Arena.
"Our focus is now on Sporting Lisbon. We want to have a good and successful game in the Champions League," said Di Matteo.
The Swiss-born Italian acknowledges his side still lack self-confidence despite moving up to eighth after picking up only their third league win of the season.
They need points to keep pressure on Jose Mourinho's Chelsea in the forthcoming home-and-away series against Sporting with the teams to meet again in Lisbon on November 5.
"We can still improve our organisation and the self-confidence will grow if we pick up a win or two," added Di Matteo.
Netherlands striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who equalised for Schalke both at Stamford Bridge and in their 1-1 draw at home to Slovenia's Maribor last month, is impressed with the new coach.
"He knows what he wants. He shows us exactly what he wants in terms of tactics," said the Dutch star.
'The Hunter' netted Schalke's opening goal with a superb header against Hertha before Germany midfielder Julian Draxler made sure of the win with a second-half strike.
Schalke's Cameroon forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting says the Royal Blues still have much to improve on against Sporting.
"Of course we can play better football, I am sure we will do that in the next few weeks," said the 25-year-old.
"In the next few games we need to work on not losing the ball so much when going forward."
Having lost 1-0 at home to Chelsea and drawn 1-1 at Maribor, Marco Silva's Sporting need a result in Gelsenkirchen to breath life back into their European campaign.
Sporting warmed-up for their trip to Germany with a 3-1 win over former Champions League winners Porto on Saturday in the third round of the Portuguese Cup.
Sporting's star forward Nani put them 2-1 up at the break after Porto's Ivan Marcano scored an own goal before Peru's Andre Carrillo sealed the win with an 83rd-minute strike for the visitors.
By SuperSport