With a furious effort, Schalke 04 kept their chance of staying up in the Bundesliga.
In their trend-setting home game against fellow promoted team Werder Bremen, the Royal Blues won 2-1 (0-1) after a deficit and reduced the gap to the relegation place to one point.
But because the competitors in the table basement also scored and the rest of the program is extremely demanding, the situation remains precarious.
The Gelsenkircheners still have to play at FSV Mainz 05, record champions Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt is the last home game opponent. At least Schalke is still in the running – unlike two years ago: the former Champions League regular was already relegated on the 30th matchday.
Sepp van den Berg (81st), who had been injured for a long time, 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 still has seven points ahead of the relegation zone.
Ducksch collects beer shower
Schalke trainer Thomas Reis had to do without defensive stabilizer Moritz Jenz for a short time, who was actually scheduled to play again for 90 minutes after recovering from a pulled thigh and making a cautious comeback. For this, veteran Maya Yoshida returned to the defense.
U21 national player Tom Krauß was available again in midfield. Werder coach Ole Werner was still missing striker Niclas Füllkrug (calf injury), but his strike partner Ducksch was fit in time.
After a shaky start with many inaccuracies in the build-up, Schalke pushed the pace for the first time when Rodrigo Zalazar used a through ball from 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 – followed by a beer shower in front of the north curve.
With the goal, Bremen pulled the plug on Schalke: The game rippled along without any team really being able to do anything constructive. 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, Marius Bülter tested Pavlenka with a long-range shot (47′), Zalazar also failed at the Werder keeper (58′). In addition, 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 it up furiously: first Dominick Drexler saved in injury time in the penalty area when he blocked a shot from Marvin Ducksch, then he remained ice cold in front of the goal.
