S04 defeat FC Groningen in friendly at the Parkstadion

Match practice for several players

Head coach Kees van Wonderen used the friendly to give minutes to several first-team players that hadn’t featured much recently. Seok-ju Hong from the U23s was included in the starting XI.

Six more players from Schalke’s reserves – Philip Buczkowski, Oguzcan Büyükarslan, Nedzhib Hadzha, Bojan Potnar, Malik Talabidi and Yannick Tonye – formed the bench and all came on in the second half.

Barkok scores from the spot

Schalke started brightly against the team currently ninth in the Eredivisie. Vitalie Becker registered the first shot of the evening, with his strike from around 20 yards out going over the bar (5’). Five minutes later, Tobias Mohr whipped in a cross from the left. Peter Remmert rose highest in the middle but couldn’t divert his header on target.

Remmert was again involved in a good move shortly afterwards. The striker was brought down in the box by defender Marvin Peersman and referee Timo Gansloweit immediately pointed to the spot. Aymen Barkok stepped up and confidently converted the penalty to open the scoring (18’).

The 2015 Dutch Cup winners struggled to impact the game early on, though they did threaten more frequently as the first half went on. Former Bielefeld man Rui Mendes was denied by the legs of Justin Heekeren, before Dave Kwakman and Thijs Oosting both failed to make the most of good opportunities in quick succession (32’).

At the other end, Barkok almost got his and Schalke’s second, curling a left-footed shot just past the post from the edge of the box (34’). Five minutes before the break, Seok-ju Hong found himself in a good shooting position, but a defender tackled him as he pulled the trigger.

Few chances for either side in the second half

Aymen Barkok had the first attempt of the second half, seeing his low drive well held by Groningen goalkeeper Hidde Jurjus (51’), who then wasn’t called upon two minutes later as Peter Remmert tried his luck from distance.

Seok-ju Hong was the next Royal Blue to try and get the better of Jurjus, but the Dutchman had no problems with his effort either (66’). Just moments before that, Thijs Oosting missed the target with a free-kick from distance for the visitors. His teammate Noam Emeran hit the side-netting with around an hour gone, although Justin Heekeren would have had his shot covered.

Aside from these two shots, the away team failed to really create any other chances in the second half. Schalke, who introduced a number of youngsters to the game after the break, also didn’t come close to scoring despite putting together some promising attacks. That meant it ended 1-0 to the Royal Blues at the Parkstadion.

A trip to Fürth up next

Schalke’s next match after the international break is on matchday 27 away to SpVgg Greuther Fürth. The match will be played at the Sportpark Ronhof on Sunday (30/3) at 13:30 CEST.