Kevin-Prince Boateng had announced a great fight before the 2:5 at Schalke. This is how his work report turns out. And this is what his opponent says.

Before Hertha BSC’s game at Schalke, Kevin-Prince Boateng once again had a pretty big mouth. The ex-Schalker announced to the Berliner Zeitung: “There will be more back and forth. There might also be a red card at times.” And: “We are in the relegation battle, we are not here to play nice or pull the foot away. If that’s close to a red card, then so be it. We are here to fight.”

And what happened to that? Boateng gesticulated a lot on Friday night in FC Schalke 04’s 5-2 win and also threw himself into every ball. In addition, there were some good ball distributions. You could see the playing class and the overview also flash in a few situations. But the 36-year-old’s range of action in left midfield was very limited.

After 61 minutes, Berlin coach Sandro Schwarz took Boateng, who had played for Schalke from 2013 to 2016, off the field. By then, the veteran had not received a red card, but at least a yellow when he tried to take an arcing shot straight out of the air five minutes before the break, inadvertently clearing Schalke’s Danny Latza.

Latza was Thomas Reis’ somewhat surprising answer to Hertha BSC’s “Aggressive Leader”. The Königsblauen captain, also already 33, was back in the starting eleven for the first time since the 0-0 draw with 1. FC Köln in January and worked Boateng effectively for the duration of his involvement.

And while Boateng ducked away after the devastating defeat and didn’t even enter the mixed zone, his opponent was happy to comment on the duel. “It’s all good. I like players like that, I have to say,” Latza said. “You always have to be awake there. He’s seen a lot of things and I’ve met him before, also with Mainz against Frankfurt.”

While Boateng was unable to make a decisive impact, Latza was even able to add his name to the list of scorers. The preliminary work before the 4:1 of Marius Bülter after 78 minutes came from him. Boateng had not been on the pitch for a long time. The Berliner was unable to back up his big words with deeds.

Nevertheless, Latza likes him. “We have already had our private duels. I just like him as a guy because he is also a guy simply. It’s fun to play against people like that.” This fun, however, might have been distributed quite one-sidedly on Friday night in the Schalker Arena.