04 debuts, a milestone reached and one still to come

Debuts all round

Two players celebrated their Bundesliga debut at Borussia-Park on Saturday. Jonjoe Kenny, on loan from Everton, was in the starting line-up and played the full game, while Münir Levent Mercan was subbed on during injury time. The midfielder, who normally plays in the U23 squad, already got his first taste of professional football against SV Drochtersen/Assel last week and will continue to train with the first team in the coming weeks.

It was also a special game for David Wagner. The 47-year-old head coach was in the dugout for a Bundesliga game for the first time and he was not disappointed with his side’s performance. At the same time, he also noted that the performance in Mönchengladbach was not perfect and a there’s still a lot more work to be done. The fourth debutant was Benito Raman. The Belgian has already played 30 career Bundesliga games, but this was his first for the Royal Blues. The winger got 74 minutes in his first ever competitive game for S04.

50th appearance in Bundesliga

The game against Gladbach saw Amine Harit reached his 50th Bundesliga appearance. The Moroccan made his debut in the German top flight on matchday 1 last season, setting up Yevhen Konoplyanka’s goal to wrap up a 2-0 win against RB Leipzig on 19th August 2017.

The wait for the 1,000th away goal goes on

Benito Raman had the best chance to score against Borussia. In the 27th minute, the attacker mis-hit the ball and failed to test goalkeeper Yann Sommer. If his shot had gone in, it would have been the 1,000th away goal in the Bundesliga for FC Schalke 04. The next chance to reach that milestone will be against SC Paderborn 07 on matchday 4.

Schöpf and Uth watch on

Mark Uth and Alessandro Schöpf were among the 54,022 spectators at Borussia-Park as they are still not 100 percent following their injuries and so weren’t included in the squad. Schöpf still managed to make it to the stadium before kick-off, despite having gathered important match practice with the U23s just three hours earlier. As the Schalke reserves were playing in Bonn, luckily he didn’t have to travel far to catch the Bundesliga game.