After their league victory against Darmstadt, FC Schalke came away empty-handed in the DFB Cup against the “Lilien.”

Just five days after their 1-0 victory in the 2nd Bundesliga, FC Schalke faced Darmstadt 98 again in the DFB Cup.
However, S04 had to face the “Lilien” in the second round. And this time, the Royal Blues came up short. After 90 minutes, the score was 0-4 (0-2) from Schalke’s perspective, who had to write off the €847,544 bonus that would have been awarded for advancing.

While Darmstadt changed four positions in their starting lineup, including the return of top striker Isac Lidberg, S04 coach Miron Muslic made only one change. Finn Porath replaced Vitalie Becker in the starting eleven.

The game was heated from the start. Darmstadt had over 60 percent possession in the opening minutes and the first good chance. But S04 keeper Loris Karius came out on top in his duel with Fraser Hornby.

SVD then took the lead with their second chance. After a Schalke corner, Darmstadt launched a quick counterattack, which ended with Hiroki Akiyama scoring on his second attempt to make it 1-0.

Kenan Karaman had previously missed a great opportunity to put Schalke ahead, failing to get past SVD goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen. And things got even worse for Schalke. The hosts used the momentum of their lead to add another goal just five minutes later. After a corner, it was Matej Maglica who scored for Darmstadt to make it 2-0. The score remained the same until halftime, giving Schalke time to regroup.

After the break, however, things got off to a bad start again for the Gelsenkirchen team. Just three minutes after the restart, the game was over. Once again, it was Hornby who kept his cool in front of Karius and scored the 3-0.

Schalke tried to get back into the game and had the opportunity to make it 1-3 through Moussa Sylla, but he missed. Two minutes later, Schalke’s fate was sealed when Bartosz Bialek, who had come on as a substitute shortly before, made it 4-0. Muslic also showed with his subsequent substitutions that he had given up on the game. Nevertheless, Janik Bachmann should have scored a consolation goal, but he missed miserably from 15 meters out. So it remained 4-0 for Darmstadt. Darmstadt’s next game in the 2nd Bundesliga is on Saturday (November 1, 8:30 p.m.) against Arminia Bielefeld. Schalke plays on Saturday (November 1, 1 p.m.) at Karlsruher SC.