5-3 defeat in Hamburg on the opening matchday

Competitive debut for four Royal Blues

Ibrahima Cissé started at centre-back alongside Marcin Kaminski. Thomas Ouwejan and Cedric Brunner made up the rest of the back four. Dominick Drexler began next to youngster Assan Ouédraogo as the two attacking midfielders behind captain Simon Terodde up front. Goalkeeper Marius Müller was one of four players making their competitive debut for the first team, along with fellow new signing Ron Schallenberg, Cissé and Ouédraogo.

Glatzel opens the scoring

The official opening match of the new 2. Bundesliga season didn’t take long to get going. Robert Glatzel had the first chance after just five minutes, forcing Marius Müller into a strong save. HSV continued to press for an opener and Müller was again on hand to deny their number 9. It took the Royal Blues 15 minutes to create their first opportunity. Kenan Karaman beat Guilherme Ramos and tried his luck, only to see Daniel Heuer Fernandes parry his effort.

HSV were the better team in the opening stages and took the lead in the 17th minute. Immanuel Pherai was given too much space down the right flank and put an enticing cross into the six-yard box. Glatzel slid in to give the home team the lead. Two minutes later, Müller made a good save from Pherai.

Ouédraogo makes history – Ouwejan puts S04 ahead

Instead of a second for the home team, it was Schalke who got the next goal at the Volksparkstadion. Kenan Karaman played the ball into the box and Simon Terodde laid it off for academy product Assan Ouédraogo. He did brilliantly to beat Stephan Ambrosius and then picked out the bottom corner with a clever finish. Aged just 17 years and 80 days, Ouédraogo became both Schalke’s youngest ever player in the top two divisions and their youngest ever goalscorer too.

Despite Schalke’s equaliser, Hamburg remained the more dangerous team. Müller used his boot to divert Pherai’s shot wide (30’) and then pushed Levin Öztunali’s shot onto the post (36’). Defender Moritz Heyer had two chances before the break for Hamburg. Firstly, his shot was blocked by Marcin Kaminski and then he was surprised by an opportunity from the resulting corner and couldn’t direct the ball on target (43’).

Just as the first half looked to be ending all square, Thomas Ouwejan gave the Knappen the lead. Assan Ouédraogo’s pass in the box was cleared by Ambrosius to Terodde. His touch looped up in the air to Ouwejan and he took it first time on his left, hammering it into the far corner for 2-1 on the stroke of half time.

HSV come from behind inside four minutes

The home side once again created the better chances in the second half as both teams really got stuck in. Robert Glatzel latched onto a high ball in front of Marius Müller, but Schalke’s goalkeeper kept out his shot, though VAR probably would have chalked out a goal for offside had he scored (50’).

Schalke were celebrating a third goal less than two minutes later, albeit not for long. Terodde found the back of the net from a Tobias Mohr cross, but was narrowly in an offside position. At the other end, Hamburg continued to push for an equaliser and were soon awarded a penalty after Ibrahima Cissé’s foul on Glatzel in the box. Laszlo Benes stepped up and sent Müller the wrong way to level the game once again (56’). Just four minutes later, the Slovakian scored again, this time lifting a shot over Müller from a rapid HSV counter-attack (60’).

Terodde’s equaliser cancelled out late on

This crazy game continued to entertain as Schalke found an equaliser through captain Terodde. He hit his shot first time past Heuer Fernandes after a nice pass to him by Ron Schallenberg (66’). The Royal Blues suffered another setback shortly afterwards though, with Ibrahima Cissé sent off for a second yellow card after fouling Levin Öztunali (71’).

Now with a man advantage, Tim Walter’s team looked to win it late on and did just that. Muro Muheim crashed a shot off the post with nine minutes to play, before Müller needed to make a fingertip save to frustrate Glatzel (87’). Henning Matriciani also blocked Jonas Meffert’s attempt wide for a corner (88’). Schalke’s only dangerous moment late on was when Bryan Lasme turned a defender and got in behind, but he could only hit his shot straight at Heuer Fernandes (85’). HSV’s winning goal came in the first minute of injury time. Glatzel latched onto a deflected pass from Ignace van der Brempt, rounded Müller and then smashed it home. With Müller pushed up for a free-kick in the final minute of the game, Jean-Luc Dompé was able to score on the break and seal all three points for the Rothosen (90+9’).

First home game up next

S04’s first home game of the new season is against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The match will be played on Saturday (5/8) at 20:30 CEST at the VELTINS-Arena.