FC Schalke 04 has been knocked out of the second round of the DFB Cup. League rivals FC St. Pauli beat S04 2-1 after extra time.

In the first round of the DFB Cup, FC Schalke 04 had just managed to beat league rivals Eintracht Braunschweig, who are currently bottom of the second Bundesliga.

In the second round, however, they were unable to advance against the leaders of the German second division. At the Millerntor stadium in Hamburg, S04 lost 1-2 to FC St. Pauli after extra time. Schalke played well in the first half, during which Karel Geraerts’ team also took the lead. But then the Royal Blues didn’t show much.

“We came out strong and took the lead. We stuck well to the plan we had in mind. In the end, though, we didn’t do well and that’s how the game ended. But we had our situations in a phase that we had to finish in a more targeted and efficient way. Then more would have been possible,” Andre Hechelmann summed up on Sky.

The team around scorer Marcin Kaminski was cheered up after the game by the fans who had traveled from Gelsenkirchen. The sports director also noticed this and highly values the gesture of the fans.
“That was a great sign from the fans. The team gave everything, just like at the weekend. We have to continue on this path together. Then the results will come too. I am convinced of that.”

Schalke is now out of the cup and can concentrate fully on the league. The current goal for the Gelsenkirchen-based team is to avoid the worst-case scenario of relegation to the 3rd division, and to gradually work their way up the table.

The remaining fixtures before the winter break are at 1. FC Nürnberg, against SV Elversberg, at Fortuna Düsseldorf, against VfL Osnabrück, at Hansa Rostock and in the Veltins-Arena against Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth. Schalke needs a lot of points here to be sent off into the Christmas vacation and turn of the year by their fans with applause.