The Schalke 04 professionals withstood the pressure: they won the basement duel against bottom team Osnabrück 4:0 (1:0). The fans celebrated.

The frustration simply had to come out. Paul Seguin had just scored FC Schalke 04’s second goal in the second division’s cellar duel against VfL Osnabrück when he ran to the corner flag and hit it so hard while celebrating the goal that it broke. All the Royal Blues were as relieved as Seguin after his goal. The S04 professionals withstood the great pressure and swept the shockingly weak bottom team off the pitch with 4:0 (1:0).

The reaction of the Schalke fans to the negative series and the terrible style of play had been eagerly awaited – but they remained neutral. The Ultras Gelsenkirchen merely presented a poster with the inscription “No ifs and buts – tear it up for three points” and gave the professionals the chant “Let’s Schalke fight and win” during the warm-up. The emotional highlight was the performance of the Ruhrkohle Choir, who sang the Steigerlied in the darkened arena ten minutes before kick-off.

While this gave the 62,000 spectators goosebumps, the same could not be said for the first half. It was a poor game of soccer between two uncertain teams. Schalke left the slightly better impression, they had significantly more possession (64 percent), but this did not lead to good forward passes, but to endless cross-passing stalemates by the defenders. Coach Karel Geraerts had somewhat surprisingly arranged his team in a 4-4-2 system with a diamond in midfield, with three new players coming into the team: Paul Seguin, Tobias Mohr and Simon Terodde.

Captain Terodde had the first chance after five minutes – after a header from Bryan Lasme, he shot just wide of the left post. If the fans were hoping for a lively attacking game, they were disappointed. Both teams showed great technical weaknesses, often losing the ball unnecessarily in the build-up and not making it difficult for the defensive lines. Schalke owed their 1:0 lead at the break to an own goal

Following a corner from Paul Seguin, the ball bounced off the head of Osnabrück’s Niklas Wiemann past goalkeeper Lennart Grill and into the net – although Marcin Kaminski was credited as the scorer in the official DFB report. A bit of billiards, a bit of slapstick – but a lot of luck for Schalke. Almost nothing happened until the break, only Terodde had two more shots on target (31st/45th). Whereas two years ago, in the year of promotion, he scored from every difficult position, his form crisis continues. And Osnabrück? The team at the bottom of the table had presented Uwe Koschinat as their new coach during the week, but there was no noticeable effect. The 6,000 Osnabrück fans who had traveled with them were in much better form than the eleven players on the pitch

In the second half, Schalke played to the Nordkurve, who had so often disappointed them recently. And they played much livelier and more purposefully than before the break. Bryan Lasme had a header chance with only 60 seconds played after the break. The second goal came in the 49th minute: Schalke countered against Osnabrück, who had moved wide, Derry John Murkin managed a pinpoint cross, Paul Seguin made it 2-0 with a low shot into the left corner and made the corner flag suffer.

Just under ten minutes later, video assistant Timo Gerach helped Schalke score a third goal: After a duel between Wiemann and Terodde in the penalty area, referee Tom Bauer initially allowed play to continue, but then changed his decision after studying the images. Terodde, previously unfortunate, grabbed the ball himself and converted safely to make it 3:0 (62′). Kenan Karaman made it 4:0 in the 71st minute, scoring with his head after a cross from Tobias Mohr.

The rest was a spectacle. The fans in the Nordkurve celebrated – and Schalke’s defense even managed something special on this evening: for the second time this season, they did not concede a goal.