The Royal Blues prevent the next setback in the fight for relegation and win an important victory. The final phase will be dramatic.
FC Schalke 04 draws hope again in the relegation battle: The Royal Blues won the Saturday evening game of matchday 30 in a dramatic final phase 2-1 (0-1) against Werder Bremen. Marvin Ducksch (18′) put the guests in the lead, Sepp van den Berg (81′) scored the deserved equalizer for Schalke, who were fighting spiritedly, Dominick Drexler (90’+2) scored to win. The Bremen team missed a number of the best chances, their own leadership
With four games to go, coach Thomas Reis’ team is still in 17th place, but with 27 points they are only one point behind the relegation place.
| 15 | 30 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 38:52 | -14 | 28 | ||||
| 16 | 30 | 8 | 4 | 18 | 33:67 | -34 | 28 | ||||
| 17 | 30 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 28:57 | -29 | 27 | ||||
| 18 | 29 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 35:59 | -24 | 22 |
whole table
This is how the game went:
The victory of the previous table third bottom from Stuttgart a few hours earlier had put FC Schalke under a lot of pressure. “If you compare it to the boxer: We stagger – but we haven’t fallen yet. It’s important that you keep getting up,” said coach Thomas Reis before kick-off. The fact that the football teacher had to do without defensive stabilizer Moritz Jenz for a short time made the task even more difficult.
The special circumstances made the hosts visibly difficult. Not least because of this, Bremen got off to a better start. A shot by Leonardo Bittencourt (6th) was cleared by Maya Yoshida, who had returned to the team after recovering from a muscle injury. Although Schalke gradually found their way into the game and narrowly missed the Werder goal when Kenan Karaman (12′) shot, they were still the weaker team in terms of play.
The opening goal was exemplary for the more creative game of the North Germans. Ducksch, released after passes by Maximilian Philipp and Mitchell Weiser, took the opportunity and scored his 12th goal of the season just a week after his three goals in the game at Hertha BSC. Because the injured Füllkrug has already scored 16 times, two Bremen players have scored 12 goals in a Bundesliga season for the first time since 2008/09.
Schalke had to be braver
The early deficit forced Schalke to take a braver stance. More and more they forced the opponent on the defensive, but hardly created any chances. Only when Simon Terodde’s header (34′) was parried by Bremen goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka was there a risk of scoring. But at least the increasing pressure from the Bundesliga team, which had the weakest attacking hitherto, ensured that Werder hardly got any offensive action of their own. However, that was to change shortly before the break: Jens Stage’s player Jens Stage missed the great chance to make it 2-0 when he scored too hectically in front of the Schalke goal.
Even after the restart, Schalke continued to move forward. Despite all the zeal, however, it was initially too seldom that the Bremen defense really faced problems. And when that worked, Pavlenka was there. The keeper mastered shots from Marius Bülter (47th) and Rodrigo Zalazar (58th). Luck was on Bremen’s side when Tom Krauss hit the bar in the 64th minute.
Schalke coach Reis wanted to force the turnaround with three changes in the 75th minute – and showed a lucky hand with the jokers van den Berg and Drexler.
