Spirited away performance goes unrewarded

Four changes to the starting XI

Matija Nastastic was ruled out due to suspension and Benjamin Stambouli came in as his replacement. Domenico Tedesco opted to make three further changes to the side that won 1-0 on Wednesday night against Wolfsburg. Bastian Oczipka, Amine Harit and Marko Pjaca were replaced by Daniel Caligiuri, Breel Embolo and Franco di Santo.

An exciting clash between two attacking sides

The tie in the Allianz Arena was exciting from the off. Domenico Tedesco’s side were far from overawed by the occasion and pressed the Bayern players from the off. Within a minute, Breel Embolo’s powerful effort forced a smart save from Sven Ulreich. In spite of the solid start,  the Knappen found themselves behind early on. Robert Lewandowski poked the hosts in front with six minutes on the clock.

Schalke went after an equaliser immediately. Thilo Kehrer’s header narrowly missed the target but Franco di Santo had no such problems in finding the back of the net. Leon Goretzka’s unorthodox effort found its way to Franco di Santo on the left of the Bayern penalty area before he smartly turned inside and fired a shot into the bottom right corner. However, the joy was sadly cut short. Minutes later, Thomas Muller restored Bayern’s lead after he squeezed the ball past Ralf Fährmann from an acute angle.

Embolo has best chance at equaliser

Schalke started the second half strongly and continued to put Bayern under serious pressure. Despite their dominance, Schalke were unable to score that all-important equaliser. Towards the game’s closing stages, Bayern managed to regain a foothold on proceedings and managed to see the game out but did not trouble Ralf Fährmann’s goal.

On the opposite side, Sven Ulreich had questions asked of him on numerous occasions. He denied Breel Embolo in the 71^st minute and was saved by teammate Arturo Vidal’s last-ditch challenge on Amine Harit as he was about to let rip from the edge of the area.

No team was able to add to their first half tally. Bayern remained solid at the back and Schalke went able to find an elusive equaliser so their efforts went unfortunately unmerited.

S04 play in another headline clash next Saturday

On Matchday 23, the Knappen once again play in Saturday’s headline game. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim head to the VELTINS Arena this Saturday with tickets still available on the website.