S04 beaten 2-0 by Paderborn

Four changes to the starting XI

Kees van Wonderen made four changes to the team from the last game away at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Tomas Kalas, Anton Donkor, Amin Younes and Emil Højlund were all selected in his starting XI, with Derry John Murkin unavailable due to suspension. Mehmet Can Aydin, Max Grüger and Tobias Mohr all dropped to the bench.

SCP with the better chances

The away team had the first chance of the evening with less than two minutes on the watch. Felix Götze cleverly let a corner run through to Raphael Obermair, whose first-time effort went over the bar. At the other end, Taylan Bulut burst down the right flank and got past Aaron Zehnter. He fired a low ball across the box, though none of his teammates could get on the end of it (11’).

Paderborn generally had the better chances in the first half. In the 17th minute, Janik Bachmann lost the ball close to his own box, allowing Ilyas Ansah to play it to Sven Michel. His shot was bravely blocked by Tomas Kalas, however the move wasn’t done yet as Justin Heekeren then denied Marvin Mehlem’s attempt. Three minutes later, Moussa Sylla couldn’t connect with Anton Donkor’s low drive to the back post (20’).

Obermair puts Paderborn ahead

The visitors were able to create several good opportunities to score towards the end of the first half. Firstly, Filip Bilbija cut inside from the right side and tested out Heekeren. The ball rebounded to Michel, but Ron Schallenberg was there to get in the way of his shot. 60 seconds later, Bilbija was again frustrated by Schalke’s goalkeeper.

Heekeren was eventually beaten in the 40th minute. After initially making another good save from Bilbija, Aaron Zehnter’s cross from the left was only cleared by S04’s goalkeeper to Raphael Obermair. His first-time strike had too much on it for Heekeren and the ball ended up in the back of the net.

Schalke came close to finding an equaliser just two minutes later: Taylan Bulut’s cross found its way to Anton Donkor, who looked to place the ball into the top corner. SCP keeper Manuel Riemann made a fine save to preserve their lead going into the break.

Mehlem makes it two

The second half began poorly for S04. Ilyas Ansah came inside from the left, slipped in Marvin Mehlem and he slotted the ball past Justin Heekeren to make it 2-0 (48’). The provider almost got himself a goal five minutes later, heading just wide from a corner.

With an hour played, Taylan Bulut did well to tackle Sven Michel as Paderborn threatened from a counter-attack. Meanwhile, Janik Bachmann found himself in a decent position to shoot from the edge of the box but couldn’t hit the target.

Ba misses the target – Schallenberg’s red card overturned

Paderborn continued to look more likely to score and almost got a third goal in the 66th minute when Anton Donkor cleared Tjark Scheller’s shot off the line.

A nice pass by Paul Seguin allowed substitute Pape Meïssa Ba to race in behind, however he couldn’t get a proper connection on his finish and stabbed the ball wide (69’). Shortly afterwards, referee Robert Schröder showed Ron Schallenberg a red card for a professional foul after his tackle on Sven Michel. After consulting VAR, Schröder overturned his decision as it was clear that Schallenberg had won the ball (70’).

The away team were comfortable in the closing stages, missing a chance for 3-0 as Justin Heekeren kept out Aaron Zehnter’s shot (78’). As claims for a Schalke penalty after contact by Zehnter on Adrian Gantenbein were waved away, the game ended 2-0 for Paderborn following five minutes of stoppage time.

Düsseldorf away up next

S04’s final away game of the season is against Fortuna Düsseldorf next Saturday (13:00 CEST).