Football Second League
“Schalker stick together” – liberation against the first team
Status: 01.03.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
It was a hot Friday evening in the second division. Schalke 04 achieved a much celebrated victory against league leaders St. Pauli that was hardly thought possible. Hertha looked like the sure winner against Kiel, but things turned out differently.
Second division leaders FC St. Pauli suffered a setback at the crisis team FC Schalke 04 with their second defeat of the season. Coach Fabian Hürzeler’s team deservedly lost 1:3 (0:1) to the much-improved Bundesliga relegated team on Friday evening.
“When you drive in here to the stadium. 60,000 – no matter how bad things are, Schalke sticks together,” said striker Simon Terodde after the game: “We know that we have played scary football at times in the last few weeks. It’s nice that we were able to give such an answer.
In front of 61,497 spectators in the sold-out Schalke Arena, Yusuf Kabadayi (44th minute/73rd) and Kenan Karaman (90th + 2) scored twice for the Revierklub, which was able to move away from the relegation zone. Hamburg, who had had no chance for a long time, only shortened the lead thanks to a deflected shot from Elias Saad (89′).
Schalke player of the day: Yusuf Kabadayi scored two goals against St. Pauli
Source: dpa/Bernd Thissen
The league leader, who had been so confident up until now, was clearly inferior, was hardly a threat and only barely avoided an even greater defeat. In addition, Eric Smith was injured early on and had to be substituted in the twelfth minute. The gap to a non-promotion rank could now be reduced to seven points for Hamburg at the weekend. St. Pauli suffered their last and first defeat of the season three weeks ago in Magdeburg.
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The third home win in a row was extremely important for Schalke. After the 3-0 defeat after an indisputable performance in Magdeburg, the mood in Gelsenkirchen had changed. On Monday, the team expressed its opinion internally in an intensive discussion. Coach Karel Geraerts, who came under pressure, reacted with five starting eleven changes and was rewarded: his team had not appeared as committed and superior as against St. Pauli for a long time.
Kiel with a lot of luck at Hertha
Holstein Kiel has just averted another major setback in the promotion race. The North Germans came to a late 2:2 (0:2) at Hertha BSC. The Berliners had already looked like the winners after a brace from Haris Tabakovic (17th/45th). But first Finn Porath shortened the score (80′), and then the video referee intervened in stoppage time. Referee Bastian Dankert decided on a foul, and Timo Becker (90th + 8) scored from the penalty spot.
While Hertha hardly has any remaining chance of returning to the Bundesliga despite four games without defeat, the Kiel team were at least able to move one point closer to St. Pauli. However, Hamburger SV can push their rivals out of direct promotion with a win on Sunday against VfL Osnabrück.
The Berliners were a long time closer to the third goal than Holstein was to the connection, although the former Kiel player Fabian Reese was able to set fewer accents than usual this time. Jonjoe Kenny (59th) hit the crossbar with a free kick. When Porath scored from a distance, things got exciting again in the final phase. And then there was a foul by Linus Gechter in the penalty area and the late equalizer by Becker.
“I think the referees did a good job today,” said Hertha coach Pal Dardai: “That’s not the problem. We have to score a third, fourth, fifth goal. We had enough transition situations.” That’s how Reese saw it: “It feels like a defeat. We had the chance to make it 3-0. We had huge rooms and didn’t use them.”