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Moussa Sylla: Everyone believes in me and that lets me do my job on the pitch
It was a game that summed this Schalke side up perfectly: despite plenty going against them – an early setback and an unjust sending-off – the Royal Blues came away from SV Elversberg with a 2-1 win on Sunday (12/4). Moussa Sylla put his side ahead while they were down to ten men, and the Royal Blues defended that lead with intensity and heart right up to the final whistle.
As the team celebrated the win in the dressing room at the URSAPHARM-Arena an der Kaiserlinde, chants of “Moussa’s on fire” rang out. Just as he had in the previous away game in Darmstadt, Moussa Sylla delivered a crucial goal against a direct rival – and this time it proved enough to seal all three points. “How often have we said that Moussa Sylla would still be a key player for us? Today’s goal says it all,” head coach Miron Muslic commented after the match about his striker.
In the 56th minute, Adil Aouchiche picked out Dejan Ljubičić’s run on the right with a precise diagonal pass. Ljubičić then sent the ball into the middle, where Sylla had pulled away from Maximilian Rohr, allowing him to find the far corner to make it 2-1.
A determined performance with ten men
What made it even more impressive was that only five minutes earlier, the Royal Blues had been dealt the blow of an unjust dismissal for Moussa Ndiaye, who was shown a second yellow after Lukas Petkov fouled him – not the other way round. “After that, we told ourselves we had to give even more to make up for that unjust sending-off,” Sylla explained afterwards.
Schalke then defended their lead for around 40 minutes through sheer determination, giving little away at the back – and when they did, goalkeeper Loris Karius was there.
Sylla delighted for goalscorer El-Faouzi
It didn’t look like things would go Schalke’s way at first. S04 were caught on the break as early as the fourth minute, with Luca Schnellbacher putting the hosts in front. But Soufiane El-Faouzi’s stunning overhead kick in the 28th minute brought Muslic’s side roaring back into the game. “I told Soufi, ‘You don’t score many goals. But one day, you’ll score a crazy one.’ I’m really pleased for him – he deserved that,” Sylla said of his team-mate’s spectacular strike.
Now we need to recover and get ourselves ready for the next game. The focus is always on the next challenge.
Sylla added that the current run is the reward for all the hard work put in over recent weeks and months, and he was keen to thank those around him: “The whole team, the coaches, the staff – everyone believes in me. That lets me stay calm and do my job on the pitch.” He stressed that the win was also for the fans, “who are always behind us”, before already turning his attention to the home game against Preußen Münster this Sunday (19/4): “Now we need to recover and get ourselves ready for the next game. The focus is always on the next challenge.”
