Brilliant S04 win 3-1 in Leipzig

One change to the side

Rabbi Matondo made his first appearance of the season in Leipzig, after picking up a foot injury in pre-season. The Wales international replaced Daniel Caligiuri in the team.

Sané heads home, Harit converts from the spot

The Royal Blues began the game with confidence and weren’t intimated by their high-flying hosts. Guido Burgstaller (4’) and Salif Sané (7’) had two half chances early on, before Marcel Sabitzer smashed the underside off the crossbar in the 15th minute. RB then continued to push for an opening goal, but this time it was S04 skipper Alexander Nübel who got in their way. The goalkeeper made two saves in quick succession from Emil Forsberg and Sabitzer to brilliantly keep the scores level.

S04’s first real chance fell to Jonjoe Kenny, although he couldn’t get enough power on his shot to beat Peter Gulacsi in the home goal (20’). Nine minutes later the away fans were able to celebrate finally. A Bastian Oczipka corner was flicked on by Omar Mascarell and eventually met by Salif Sané at the back post to head Schalke into the lead. Controversy soon followed as Amine Harit was caught by Amadou Haidara in the box. Referee Manuel Gräfe let play run on, before VAR eventually reversed his decision and Schalke had a penalty late in the first half. Harit stepped up and scored it himself (43’), despite Gulacsi guessing the right way.

Matondo scores in the Bundesliga for the first time

Even after their two first half goals, Schalke refused to sit back and defend. Instead they continued to be attacking – they wanted to have fun on the ball. Both teams created plenty of chances but the Royal Blues looked incredibly dangerous on the counter, and they converted one of those attacks in to a goal. After Nordi Mukiele lost the ball, Harit had two options. He chose Matondo and he was rewarded for it as he slotted it cooly past Gulacsi in to the bottom right corner (59’), to give the youngster his first Bundesliga goal!

Schalke were lucky not to concede just six minutes after going 3-0 up as Marcel Halstenberg struck the bar from a similar position to Marcel Sabitzer in the first half. Leipzig struggled to create much more than that though. Instead it was Schalke who had a couple of chances with Weston McKennie and Guido Burgstaller both going close with headers (72’, 73’).

After 83 minutes, Nübel had a moment to forget. The keeper went to catch a fierce shot from Emil Forsberg, only for the ball to slip through his fingers and go in off the bar. It was Leipzig’s only gift in a game where they struggled to create clear-cut chances. Their best chance of the game fell to Sabitzer, but he put his shot wide after a good cross from Timo Werner (87’).

The next game against Köln

After the celebrations over the away win subside, preparation for the next game will begin. Schalke will play host to 1.FC Köln at the VELTINS-Arena (15:30 CEST).