Marius Bülter: I had a good feeling when I came on

In the 87th minute, Bülter tidily controlled a high ball from Rodrigo Zalazar following a corner-kick situation and kept the ball well protected from the defender as he drove forward before firing a sharp cross into the box and finding Ko Itakura, who scored a deserved equaliser. “It was some good play,” smiled Bülter as he discussed the moments which ensured that S04 go into the winter break level on points with HSV and an equal distance from the automatic promotion places.

First substitute appearance of the season

Bülter certainly breathed some life into Schalke’s attack after he was introduced on the hour mark. “I had a good feeling when I came on,” said the 28-year-old attacker, who was making his first appearance off the bench in this campaign. He isn’t completely satisfied with the final result, however. “When you see just how much we gave today, it’s frustrating to only come away with a singular point.” There’s no two ways about it from a Schalke perspective: the point they won was more than deserved. 29 shots on goal compared to eight, and 13 corners compared to six- both in favour of S04- reflect the dominance showed by Dimmitrios Grammozis’ side over the duration of the match, in particular the second half when the majority of the game was spent in HSV’s half.

Bülter fully participated in team training in the two days leading up to this match, but it wasn’t enough for him to be able to play the full 90 minutes. “I’m glad to have played a half hour,” commented the attacker. He certainly made good use of it.