The S04 U23 team put top-of-the-league Alemannia Aachen through a tough fight. Schalke coach Jakob Fimpel was disappointed with the result in the end.
The U23 team of FC Schalke 04 put up a great fight against league leaders Alemannia Aachen in front of 1,600 spectators at the Parkstadion on Sunday, but ultimately lost 2-3 (1-1). Coach Jakob Fimpel was disappointed.
The team came back twice, then came the late knockout in the eighth minute of stoppage time. In the last scene of the game, Aachen’s Anton Heinz fell in the penalty area and referee Timo Gansloweit decided on a penalty kick.
Schalke coach Fimpel saw the situation like this: “From far away, it’s always hard to see. But it was the last second, it was the last ball in the game. And then you know you only have one more chance and that’s a penalty kick. And then one of them falls and there’s contact. But is it enough?” Schalke’s coach had his doubts. ‘It’s crazy. The ball flies ten meters over him. Brutally annoying.’
Otherwise, he said, his team had nothing to reproach itself for. In Aachen, people were talking afterwards about the strongest opponent they had faced in a while. But in the end, the young Schalke players couldn’t buy anything with that. “We are extremely disappointed. It hurts for the boys because they put up an outstanding fight. To come back twice against the league leaders and the way they were there for each other and played on a very difficult pitch, it’s just bitter for the boys,” said Fimpel.
You had Aachen on the verge of losing points. “But that’s how soccer is sometimes. It hurts now, but still we can build on this performance,” Fimpel was proud of his team’s performance. “We allowed little. We also had good situations in the first half that we just threw away.”
One of them was professional loanee Yusuf Kabadayi, who put in a strong individual performance in the first half. In the second half, however, Fimpel took him off the field after just five minutes, probably because he was at risk of receiving a red card after a yellow card towards the end of the first half and another foul at the beginning of the second.