Bülter and Pieringer score in a 2-2 draw at Köln

Pálsson at the heart of the defence

Victor Pálsson began in the centre of a back-three alongside Henning Matriciani and Marius Lode. Florian Flick started as a defensive midfielder, with Marius Bülter and Darko Churlinov the two strikers in the usual 3-5-2 system.

Bülter heads home, Modeste with the equaliser

The first chance of the match at the Franz-Kremer-Stadion belonged to the hosts. Louis Schaub intercepted the ball in the Schalke half, finding Anthony Modeste in the penalty area who cut back for Mark Uth, the former Royal Blue firing just wide from the edge of the box (3’). Henning Matriciani played the ball out of his own half to Dominick Drexler, who found Marius Bülter in midfield. Our number 11 fed Andreas Vindheim down the right and carried his run into the area, where the Norwegian’s cross found him at the back post – he made no mistake with his header, and Schalke took the lead on 10 minutes.

Three minutes later, Drexler looked to double the advantage after being played in by Darko Churlinov, but the midfielder shot at Köln goalkeeper Timo Horn from a tight angle. The home side then started to dominate possession, but struggled to trouble Ralf Fährmann in the Schalke goal. Apart from Uth’s early effort, the only real attacking action from Köln in the opening quarter of an hour came from a long-range Luca Kilian effort which flew well over the bar (15’).

With 28 minutes gone, Köln equalised from nowhere. Henning Matriciani passed the ball back to Fährmann, who was put under pressure from Anthony Modeste. Schalke’s goalkeeper attempted to pass the ball off to the right, but the Effzeh striker closed him down, the ball rebounding off his foot and into the net for 1-1.

Churlinov misses big chance to regain the lead

The Royal Blues created most of their chances through counter attacks in which they played the ball through midfield quickly. With just over 10 minutes of the half remaining, Darko Churlinov won a header, the ball landing with Marius Bülter, who passed on to Rodrigo Zalazar. Schalke’s number 10 looked to find Thomas Ouwejan but Luca Kilian blocked the ball out for a corner at the last moment (34’). 04 minutes later, Churlinov missed a huge chance to get the lead back. Florian Flick found Dominick Drexler in midfield, who played the ball left to Ouwejan. The Dutchman flashed the ball into the middle, where Churlinov put the ball wide from just six yards out. At the other end, Ralf Fährmann was equal to an Anthony Modeste effort from 16 yards (39’).

Schalke attacked their hosts well early on in the opening 45 minutes, kept themselves compact and allowed few opportunities. Five minutes before the break, a wonderful piece of play led to another chance. Marius Bülter fed Drexler down the left, who played the ball into the area for Andreas Vindheim. The winter signing then passed on to Darko Churlinov, who looked to play Vindheim back in again, but the ball rolled out of play (41’). Tim Lemperle fired at Ralf Fährmann for Köln late in the half, and the half finished level at 1-1.

Andersson scores Köln’s second

Dimitrios Grammozis made no changes for the second half, whilst Köln boss Steffen Baumgart made several alterations to his side. One of those players was Florian Kainz, who was quickly in the action. He won the ball back from Marius Lode on the edge of the box and passed it to fellow substitute Sebastian Andersson. The Swedish striker then converted to make it 2-1 (46’).

Following this goal, a lot of the game was played in the midfield with both defences remaining compact. Köln broke in the 62nd minute, Kainz playing a long ball down the right-hand side to Jan Thielmann. He cut into the box and played it back to Ondrej Duda, but his shot was blocked by Marius Lode.

Seven changes

With just over an hour played, seven players came off. One of the players who came on was Marcin Kaminski, the defender making his comeback after a recent Covid-19 infection.

Marvin Pieringer tried to turn an Effzeh defender from a Kerim Calhanoglu throw-in, but couldn’t get his shot away under pressure (67’). At the other end, Marvin Ayhan Obuz shot from a narrow angle in the box, though he was denied by Fährmann (68’). Kaminski then blocked a Thielmann effort inside the 18-yard area (69’).

Pieringer with the equaliser

Schalke found an equaliser in the 73rd minute from a Kerim Calhanoglu corner. Simon Terodde’s header at the front post was only parried by Timo Horn and Marvin Pieringer reacted quickest to score acrobatically from close range.

S04 continued to search for goals, as Reinhold Ranftl hit one past the post after a nice ball into the box by Marc Rzatkowski (80’).

The Billy Goats almost won it at the death through Marvin Ayhan Obuz. The youngster lobbed it just over the bar after a pass from Thielmann. Seconds after that, referee Mitja Stegemann blew the final whistle with the score at 2-2.

Regensburg to visit to VELTINS-Arena

Schalke are back in league action next weekend at home to SSV Jahn Regensburg on Saturday (5/2) at 13:30 CET.