Loris Karius: A great final test to get us ready for the new season

As they had done against Atalanta a week earlier, Schalke suffered a 3-0 defeat at the VELTINS-Arena. “Playing Real Madrid is about as tough as it gets in football,” said Karius. “As a team, you’re inevitably going to be pushed to your limits, but we can learn from it and take plenty of positives into the season.”

Schalke fell behind early on after giving the ball away while playing out from the back, before conceding a second from a corner soon afterwards. Karius knows those are areas the team will need to look at. “We gave the goals away too easily and suddenly were 2-0 down early on. Aside from that, we defended well, but we have to cut out those simple mistakes. If we do that, I’m not too worried.” Karius believes the team are still developing, “but we’ve already shown what we’re capable of”.

Looking back over the past few weeks, the goalkeeper also pointed to the friendly against Italian top-flight side Atalanta eight days earlier, which ended with the same scoreline. “We played really well against Atalanta and were actually quite dominant for long spells. We just didn’t take our chances. It’s clear that we want to make things happen when we’re on the ball and play our way through teams.”

Karius was also pleased to round off pre-season with such a high-profile game against Real Madrid. “It was a great final test to get us ready for the new season. The fans were obviously excited for it too. For me, though, it was all about coming out of it feeling good about what lies ahead and making sure we’re ready when it matters.” Karius is certainly raring to go: “Everyone’s really excited that the cup game finally kicks off the new season next week!”