With a furious effort, Schalke 04 kept their chance of staying up in the Bundesliga.
At the moment of triumph, the beer flew up to Lothar Matthäus, the players celebrated as if they had survived the league. Their coach Thomas Reis almost freaked out, then everyone jumped in circles like crazy: Schalke 04 took new courage in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga after a furious effort – but the rest of the program is murderous.
But after the 2:1 (0:1) against fellow promoted team Werder Bremen nobody wanted to give it a second thought. The Royal Blues are only one point behind on the relegation place, so it can still somehow work out with the rescue, which would be miraculous given the first half of the season. “We have to keep our hearts on the pitch and stick together. Wins like this are extremely good,” said striker Marius Bülter sky: “That must give us power and impetus.”
Only a look at the last four games of the season spoils the joy. Schalke still have to go to Mainz, Munich and Leipzig, the last home game opponent is Eintracht Frankfurt. They will have to scrape their points for 16th place or more very laboriously, especially since the competitors also scored.
Sepp van den Berg (81st) and Dominick Drexler (90th + 2) turned the game around for the Royal Blues. Marvin Ducksch (18th) had scored the lead for Bremen, who had won in Gelsenkirchen last year together in the second division: With the 4-1 win at the time, they postponed Schalke’s promotion celebrations by a week. Bremen is seven points ahead of the relegation zone.
Schalke – Werder: Late double strike leads to success
After a confused start, Schalke pushed the pace for the first time when Rodrigo Zalazar used Kenan Karaman, who just missed the far post (12′). Ducksch did better on the other side when he successfully completed the first successful Werder combination via Maximilian Philipp and Mitchell Weiser.
With the goal, Bremen pulled the plug on Schalke: the game rippled along. Many interruptions, many back and cross passes – Schalke couldn’t, Werder didn’t want to. There was excitement again when Simon Terodde’s header forced Bremen keeper Jiri Pavlenka to make a brilliant save (34′). On the other side, Philipp had the 2-0 on his heels after a pass from Weiser (45th).
After the break, Schalke defended themselves and tried to do more offensive actions, Bülter tested Pavlenka with a long-range shot (47′) and Zalazar was also denied by the Werder keeper (58′). In addition, Tom Krauss hit the crossbar (64th). In the closing stages, striker Sebastian Polter made his comeback after a long break due to a cruciate ligament injury. Then Schalke turned up furiously.
