2-1 in Bremen! The Knappen celebrate their fourth away win of the season

Nastasic and Kabak in central defence

David Wagner made two changes from the 3-3 draw with Fortuna Düsseldorf with Weston McKennie and Alessandro Schöpf dropping out and Matija Nastasic and Mark Uth replacing them.

Schalke with plenty of possession, closed down well by Bremen

The Knappen dictated the game in the opening exchanges, having plenty more possession than their opponents. However, the team struggled ot create clear cut chances as Werder did an excellent job of closing them down when they had the ball and getting out on the counter at every opportunity. And so the first real chance of the game didn’t fall to Wagner’s men, instead to his opponents coached by Florian Kohfeldt. Milot Rashica fed Maximilian Eggestein who tested the hands of Alex Nübel from around 25 yards (14’).

It wasn’t until the 23th minute that Schalke really found their form  and had the first big chance of the game. Caligiuri fed Harit in the box but he was tackled at the last minute by Milot Rashica which saved a certain goal.

Caligiuri off the post, Harit scores

Just two minutes later, it was Caligiuri himself who rattled the post of the home side after cutting in from the left and hammering a shot from 25 yards. The ball then hit the body of Werder keeper jiri Pavlenka who was fortunate to see this deflection head wide of the post. Matija Nastasic headed over from the resulting corner (25’).

Schalke looked solid defensively, giving Werder scarcely any notable chances, and they got the reward for their efforts when they finally went 1-0 in front just before half time. The Royal Blues countered through Caligiuri who in turn fed Benito Raman. The Belgian then switched the cross in to the Werder penalty area where Harit was waiting. From what was a fairly unfavourable position, Harit then cheekily sliced the ball into the opposite corner past a helpless Pavlenka (43’).

Raman scores his first Bundesliga goal in a Schalke shirt

In the second half Benito Raman made Sebastian Langkamp pay for careless defending, as he received the ball on the right side of the pitch, beat the Werder defender, ran into the penalty area and slotted past Pavlenka from seven yards out (54’). The strike was Raman’s first Bundesliga goal in Schalke colours.

After the goal, the hosts piled on the pressure. First, Milot Rashica drove a shot just wide of the right post from 18 yards out (61’), then Yuya Osako narrowly missed the ball after a low cross from Maximilian Eggestein. After that, Philipp Bargfrede shot high over the goal (65‘).

Osako makes it interesting

After this concentrated pressure from the hosts, Schalke regained control of the game, at least until the 79th minute. Sixty seconds after substitute Claudio Pizarro headed a chance over the goal, it was the Peruvian who found Theodor Gebre Selassie, who fired an effort at goal. The Schalke captain was able to pull off a great save to deny Gebre Selassie, but the ball landed at the feet of Osako, who tapped into an empty net from close range. In the closing stages of the game, Schalke tried hard to avoid a home equaliser, while Werder tried to find one again and again. In the fifth minute of added time, Werder had a chance to make it 2-2 through Rashica, but Nübel was luckily on hand to parry the shot with a fist-. In doing so, the Royal Blues celebrated a deserved 2-1 away win.

Union Berlin on Friday

This coming Friday (29/11/19), the Royal Blues are back in action. Matchday 13 will see Schalke take on Union Berlin at home in the VELTINS-Arena at 20:30 CET.