What a return to the Ruhr region for Essen native Noel Futkeu. In a 4-3 victory at Schalke, he and strike partner Roberto Massimo caused quite a stir on the pitch.

What a return to the Ruhr region for Noel Futkeu. The Essen boy triumphed in SpVgg Greuther Fürth’s 4-3 (3-1) win in front of 60,344 spectators at Schalke. The striker, who was trained at Schwarz-Weiß Essen and Rot-Weiss Essen, even scored a goal.

The striker, who has been in the starting line-up for all ten of the Kleeblätter’s games so far this season, scored the fourth goal himself. That hasn’t changed under interim coach Leonhard Haas. Time and again, the quick striker and his partner Roberto Massimo left the Schalke defense dizzy.

While Futkeu was not available to speak to the press afterwards, Massimo, who contributed two goals to the away win, answered the reporters’ questions. “In the end, we became very passive. We probably thought we could just hold on to the 4-1 lead. Then Schalke put the pressure on again and got their fans behind them. It definitely got nasty again. But in the end, we held firm and got the three points,” said Massimo, delighted with the important victory against a direct rival in the battle to avoid relegation.

Fürth did well to use the atmosphere at Schalke to their advantage and cause unrest in the stands. That was part of the plan. Otherwise, the new coach didn’t change much to lead Fürth to victory against Schalke. “He just gave us a few pointers and made us strong in one-on-one conversations. He said I should be active, play a lot of one-on-ones, but also work defensively,” the striker explained.

In contrast to FC Schalke, where new coach Kees van Wonderen started with two defeats, the change immediately paid off for the Kleeblätter. “For me, it was already the eighth coach in my career. I’ve had quite a few coaching changes. That’s why I’m already a little familiar with it and know how to deal with it. I took it in my stride. It’s part of the business,“ said Massimo, showing little sympathy for the sacked Alexander Zorniger.

”We knew that we had to perform again, that our performance was the priority and that we had to get back to winning ways. That’s why we all focused and you could see that,” Massimo added.

So it can be that simple. There was no sign or sense of that at Schalke. These are tough times for the Royal Blues, whose change of coach has already come to nothing after two defeats.