S04 beaten 4-1 in Kaiserslautern

Murkin, Baumgartl and Tempelmann start, Churlinov on the bench

Head coach Karel Geraerts was without the suspended Marcin Kaminski and Ron Schallenberg, plus the ill Blendi Idrizi. Kaminski was replaced in the defence by Timo Baumgartl, while Lino Tempelmann came in for Idrizi. Derry John Murkin returned from his own ban to start instead of Thomas Ouwejan on the left of the defence. The Dutchman dropped to the bench, alongside Darko Churlinov, who returned to the club on Tuesday on loan from Burnley.

Ache makes it 1-0 – Terodde’s goal ruled for offside

This matchday 19 clash saw a lot of challenges fly in early on and that led to referee Dr. Robin Braun giving a number of fouls early on. One such example came in the ninth minute when Cedric Brunner brought down Richmond Tachie on the edge of the Schalke box. Brunner received his fifth yellow card of the season and will now be banned for next week’s game against Eintracht Braunschweig. His misery was compounded from the resulting free-kick: Marlon Ritter aimed to curl the ball into the far corner and his effort was parried by Ralf Fährmann. Unfortunately for Fährmann, he diverted it straight into the path of Ragnar Ache and the striker scored the rebound from six yards out (10’).

Simon Terodde looked to be in a good position to equalise a minute later. A defensive header inadvertently gave the ball to Keke Topp and he played it to Terodde, but Almamy Touré got back in time to clear the ball before Terodde could get a shot away (11’). Schalke did have the ball in the back of the net with 20 minutes played, however the flag went up after Terodde’s goal. Topp had again played through his strike partner, who converted the rebound after his first attempt was saved by Julian Krahl.

Krahl untroubled by Seguin’s strike

Schalke got better as the half went on, albeit without really threatening in the final third. Kaiserslautern’s last notable attack before the break saw Richmond Tachie fail to properly connect with Filip Kaloc’s cross and the ball went out for a goal kick.

The visitors had two half chances at the end of the first half. Firstly, Lino Tempelmann fired a dipping shot just over the bar from 20 yards out (44’). A long throw from Cedric Brunner then eventually sat up for Paul Seguin on the edge, but his low drive was well held by Julian Krahl (45+2’).

Instant impact from Churlinov – Kaiserslautern score three times in 11 minutes

Karel Geraerts made one change for the second half, introducing Darko Churlinov for Lino Tempelmann. The 23-year-old quickly made an impact on his second debut for the club, equalising in the 51st minute. A nice pass in behind from Kenan Karaman found the loanee and he had too much pace for Almamy Touré, before remaining calm in front of goal. Six minutes later, the ball dropped for Karaman in a good position in the box, but he couldn’t get it under control and Jan Elvedi cleared the ball.

Despite this positive start to the second half by the Knappen, the home team secured the victory in the space of the next 11 minutes. Ragnar Ache headed in Richmond Tachie’s cross back past Fährmann into the far corner (59’), then Filip Stojilkovic also nodded in from a few yards out from Tymoteusz Puchacz’s delivery (67’), having been denied by a strong Fährmann hand four minutes prior to that. Aaron Opoku’s solo run ended in a powerful finish, too hot to handle for S04’s number 1, and that made it 4-1 (70’).

S04 failed to recover from these three goals and only threatened again in injury time. Yusuf Kabadayi failed to get anything really on Bryan Lasme’s square pass (90’+3). At the other end, Stojilkovic (84’) and Ba-Muaka Simakala (86’) both missed the target with Kaiserslautern’s final opportunities.

Braunschweig at home

S04’s next game is at home to Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday (3/2). Kick off at the VELTINS-Arena is at 13:00 CET.