The Schalke 04 professionals withstood the pressure: they won the basement derby against bottom-placed Osnabrück 4-0 (1-0). The fans celebrated.
The frustration just had to come out. Paul Seguin had just scored the second goal for FC Schalke 04 in the second-division basement duel against VfL Osnabrück when he ran to the corner flag and hit it so hard in celebration that it broke. All the Royal Blues were as relieved as Seguin was after scoring. The S04 professionals withstood the pressure and swept the shockingly weak bottom of the league with 4-0 (1-0) from the pitch.
The reaction of the Schalke fans to the negative streak and the terrible way of playing had been eagerly awaited – but they remained neutral. The Ultras Gelsenkirchen merely presented a poster with the inscription “No ifs, ands, or buts – tear it up for three points” and encouraged the professionals during the warm-up with the chant “Come on Schalke, fight and win.” The emotional highlight was the performance of the Ruhrkohle Choir, which sang the Steigerlied in the darkened arena ten minutes before kick-off.
While the 62,000 spectators were given goosebumps, the same could not be said for the first half. It was a poor football game between two shaky teams. The Schalkers left a slightly better impression, with significantly more possession (64 percent), but this did not lead to good forward passes, but to endless back-passing by the defenders. Surprisingly, coach Karel Geraerts had his team lined up in a 4-4-2 system with a diamond in midfield, with three new players in the team: Paul Seguin, Tobias Mohr and Simon Terodde.
Captain Terodde had the first chance after five minutes – after a headed assist from Bryan Lasme, he shot just wide of the left post. The fans hoped for a lively offensive game, but were disappointed. Both teams showed major technical weaknesses, often lost the ball unnecessarily in their build-up play, and didn’t make it difficult for the defensive lines. Schalke owed their 1-0 half-time lead to an own goal.
After a corner from Paul Seguin, the ball rebounded off Osnabrück’s Niklas Wiemann’s head and past goalkeeper Lennart Grill into the net – but Marcin Kaminski was credited as the scorer in the official DFB report. A bit of luck, a bit of slapstick – but a lot of luck for Schalke. Not much happened before half-time, with only Terodde getting another two shots on target (31’/45′). Two years ago, in the promotion year, he scored from every difficult position, but his form crisis continues. And Osnabrück? The bottom-of-the-table team had presented Uwe Koschinat as their new coach during the week, but there was no sign of an effect. The 6,000 Osnabrück fans who traveled with them were in much better shape than the eleven players on the pitch.
In the second half, Schalke played towards the Nordkurve, which had disappointed them so often of late. And they played much more lively and purposefully than before the break. Bryan Lasme had a header on target after just 60 seconds of play after the break. In the 49th minute, the second goal fell: Schalke counterattacked against Osnabrück, who had moved far forward, Derry John Murkin made a pinpoint cross, Paul Seguin scored with a low shot into the left corner, and the corner flag suffered.
Just ten minutes later, video assistant Timo Gerach helped the Schalkers to score their third goal: after a tackle between Wiemann and Terodde in the penalty area, referee Tom Bauer initially allowed play to continue, but then changed his mind after studying the images. Terodde, who had been unhappy before, took the ball himself and scored confidently to make it 3-0 (62′). In the 71st minute, Kenan Karaman made it 4-0 with a header after a cross from Tobias Mohr.
The rest was a walkover. The fans in the Nordkurve celebrated – and Schalke’s defense even managed something special that evening: for the second time this season, they kept a clean sheet.