Marius Bülter is a man in form

There was a three-minute gap between when Jeffrey Gouweleeuw fouled Simon Terodde in the box in the 90th minute and when Marius Bülter stepped up to take the penalty. This delay was caused by a number of discussions, complaints and four yellow cards issued by Daniel Schlager. Bülter stepped up, sent Rafal Gikiewicz the wrong way and buried his penalty. “I just tried to remain focused and concentrate on the penalty. It worked,” said the striker after scoring his third consecutive spot-kick.

Fourth goal in four games

Bülter’s injury-time goal, his fourth in four games (plus an assist in the Revierderby), rescued the Royal Blues an important point in the fight for survival, even if the visitors were somewhat disappointed to not have won after Augsburg had a man sent off early in the second half. “Augsburg played with a back-five and kept things tight in the centre of the park. It was difficult,” added Bülter, who criticised S04’s crossing on Saturday afternoon. However, the important thing was that Schalke still got a point.

Bülter’s day wasn’t over after the game in Augsburg. He was the guest in ZDF’s programme, ‘das aktuelle sportstudio’. The 29-year-old was as pleasant as ever, though he must have left his scoring boots at home, as he only scored one goal during the goal wall challenge at the end of the show.

Clear heads ahead of the run-in

Schalke’s next Bundesliga game after the international break is at home to Bayer Leverkusen on 1st April, the first of the final nine matches. “We’ve played well for a while now and we’ve earned this break,” said Bülter, who, like the rest of the team, will use the coming days to clear his head and work on things that haven’t gone well recently. “We will then switch our full focus towards Leverkusen!”