Drexler’s late winner earns S04 a 2-1 victory over Werder

Three changes to the side

Maya Yoshida returned from his muscle strain to replace Moritz Jenz in the side. The other two changes saw Tom Krauß, who was suspended for the trip to Freiburg, and Rodrigo Zalazar come in for Danny Latza and Dominick Drexler. Those two midfielders dropped to the bench for this one.

Ducksch opens the scoring

The visitors had the first notable chance at the VELTINS-Arena, but Maya Yoshida was on hand to block Leonardo Bittencourt’s shot from just inside the box (6’). At the other end, Rodrigo Zalazar delivered an enticing cross for the Schalke attackers, however a Werder defender did well to stop Simon Terodde getting a clean header in on goal.

Zalazar was again involved in Schalke’s next move, this time playing a lovely through ball towards Kenan Karaman. He took the shot quickly and struck it just past the far post (12’). Six minutes later, Werder forward Marvin Ducksch went one better to give his side the lead. The away team won the ball back from a Schalke throw-in and got it forward quickly. Mitchell Weiser played the final pass to Ducksch, who slotted home past Alexander Schwolow for 1-0 (18’).

Schalke were desperate to get back on level terms after going behind relatively early on. The closest they came in the first half was from Simon Terodde’s header, tipped over the bar by Jiri Pavlenka (34’).

Five minutes following this save, the Czech goalkeeper was again on hand to save from Maya Yoshida from a Zalazar corner (39’). The final chance of the half also came for the away team. Maximilian Philipp fired a shot from a decent position a few yards wide (45’).

Van den Berg and Drexler turn the game on its head

It took Marius Bülter less than two minutes to test out Pavlenka at the start of the second half. His shot from long range was deflected over the bar by Werder’s number one. Three minutes after that, Kenan Karaman was just inches away from getting on the end of Rodrigo Zalazar’s lovely ball to the back post (49’).

Pavlenka was called upon again in the 59th minute, this time pushing away Zalazar’s shot after a pass from Karaman. Tom Krauß came close to getting an equaliser from a Zalazar corner, hitting the bar after Pavlenka failed to catch the delivery (64’).

They were both involved right away as Polter headed on target (78’) and van den Berg got the all-important equaliser. A long throw from Marcin Kaminski fell to the Dutch centre-back on the edge of the area and he picked out the bottom corner to level the match (81’).

Schalke continued to push forward in search of a winning goal and got it in injury time! A fantastic chipped ball over the Werder defence by Rodrigo Zalazar picked out Dominick Drexler and he dinked it past the goalkeeper to seal a massive victory for the hosts!

Friday night in Mainz

FC Schalke 04’s next game is a day after the club’s 119th birthday, away to 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Friday (5/5 at 20:30 CEST). The Royal Blues won the reverse fixture 1-0 back in November thanks to a Simon Terodde goal.