3-0 win over Kaiserslautern thanks to goals from Terodde, Karaman and Lasme

Two debutants in Baumgartl and Tempelmann

Head coach Thomas Reis made two changes to the side that began in Hamburg last Friday. Timo Baumgartl came in for the suspended Ibrahima Cissé to make his debut. The other new face was another summer signing on debut, Lino Tempelmann. He replaced Tobias Mohr in the side as S04 again went with a 4-1-4-1 formation.

Terodde opens the scoring, Luthe sent off

Both teams got stuck in right away and it was the visitors who had the first shot of the game. Marlon Ritter, a former Schalke academy player, forced Marius Müller into an excellent fingertip save with his shot from the edge of the box (4’). Kaiserslautern had the ball in the net four minutes later, but Ragnar Ache was in an offside position and the flag immediately went up.

Shortly afterwards, the Royal Blues were celebrating their opening goal. Thomas Ouwejan’s free-kick from just outside the area was headed in by captain Simon Terodde from a few yards out, with what was S04’s first notable chance of the evening (13’).

Despite the fiery nature of the first half, the next opportunity didn’t come until the 31st minute. Tobias Raschl hit a shot from just inside the box, forcing Müller into another good save. His strong hand diverted Raschl’s strike onto the post and wide for a corner.

Müller was involved again in the next big moment of the game. His long ball found Thomas Ouwejan in behind the FCK defence. Their goalkeeper Andreas Luthe rushed off his line and brought the Dutch defender down outside the box. Referee Harm Osmers was left with no choice but to send the 36-year-old off for a professional foul. Ouwejan whipped in the resulting free-kick and found Kenan Karaman in lots of space in the box, however he couldn’t properly connect and it was an easy first touch for substitute goalkeeper Julian Krahl.

Karaman and Lasme seal the win

Paul Seguin, who replaced Ouédraogo for the second half, had the first chance after the break. He flicked a floated Ouwejan cross wide with his head (46’). S04’s number two then cut inside on his right foot and dragged a shot wide from 15 yards out (53’).

Referee Osmers had his red card out again in the 57th minute. Boris Tomiak’s night came to an early end after receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Cedric Brunner. Despite the tricky circumstances, FCK didn’t give up and pushed for an equaliser. Ragnar Ache rose highest in the box, only to head over from Raschl’s cross (59’).

At the other end, Kenan Karaman spun a defender and then pulled the trigger, but Julian Krahl pushed his shot to safety (65’). Five minutes later though, the Turkey international did get his goal. Bryan Lasme’s cross wasn’t properly dealt with by Krahl and that left Karaman with an open goal from six yards out. He made no mistake and doubled S04’s lead (70’).

Even with yet another setback, the Red Devils continued to try their best. Substitute Terrence Boyd teed up another sub in Aaron Opoku, whose attempt went just inches over the crossbar (75’).  Karaman saw another shot of his parried for a corner by Krahl (85’), before Lasme emphatically drove the ball past the substitute goalkeeper from a tight angle in the second minute of injury time. Boyd had been denied by Müller just before S04’s final goal of the evening.

Back-to-back trips to Braunschweig

FC Schalke 04’s next two games are both away to Eintracht Braunschweig. The first one is on Friday (11/8) in the first round of the DFB-Pokal (20:45 CEST). Thomas Reis’ team will then be back in Braunschweig nine days later for the matchday 3 clash on Sunday (20/8) at 13:30 CEST.