After losing to a direct competitor for staying up in the league, Schalke is back at the bottom of the Bundesliga. Now a final awaits.
“away win! away win!“, the Hoffenheim fans chanted in their own stadium after the final whistle. And even the stadium announcer announced over the stadium loudspeakers one after the other after TSG’s third success: “That was really a very important away win at home against Schalke.”
15,000 Schalke in Sinsheim
Before that, almost 15,000 Schalke fans had occupied half of all the seats in the sold-out Sinsheimer Arena and turned the away game into a home game for the club from the Ruhr area. Despite the remarkable support, the evening ended bitterly from Schalke’s point of view.
An own goal by Alex Kral (22nd minute) and a goal by Ihlas Bebou from the penalty spot (70th) resulted in a 2-0 defeat against TSG. It is already the 14th Schalke defeat of the season, which, after an interim high, catapults S04 back to where they had been for a long time: all the way down in the table basement.
Thomas Reis: “Underground”
“We don’t need to look back, there’s no team” said coach Thomas Reis after the final whistle. “In front of the many great fans, that wasn’t the performance that was enough to stay up in the league. You can’t present yourself like that. Especially in the first half that was not worthy of the relegation battle“said Reis, who only exempted goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann from his criticism. “It was partly underground. Hardly anyone has reached their performance limit.”
The only positive thing about the evening was the support of the fans, according to goalkeeper Fährmann. The team must now build on this in order to be successful in the next game. Then: “It’s going to be a brutally important game“, explained the keeper: “I never said it like that and didn’t want to use the word ‘finale’ – but I think on Friday it will be.“
In fact, the new bottom of the Bundesliga shouldn’t worry too much about the defeat at TSG Hoffenheim. If Schalke wants to survive the battle for relegation, a win in the “Relegation Endgame” on Friday against the penultimate Hertha BSC (8.30 p.m.).
Big chance on Friday
On Friday Schalke 04 have the great opportunity to get three important points in the relegation battle and to reduce the gap to several competitors. Because opponent Hertha BSC is also in great need and has only one point more than Schalke on the account. On the relegation place, VfB Stuttgart is only two points ahead.
“Even if the defeat hurts, now is the time to keep going“, also explained coach Reis. “We have a very important game on Friday that we really want to win, maybe we have to to stay in the running.”
With a win, the Gelsenkirchner would jump to the relegation place for at least one night – and possibly stay there. Because the competition has big tasks: Stuttgart welcomes BVB, Hoffenheim plays against Bayern, Bochum against Union Berlin and Augsburg against RB Leipzig.