Pre-season friendly with FC Twente ends goalless

3,000 fans attended the friendly against FC Twente, who finished third in the Eredivisie last season. Head coach Karel Geraerts made five changes to the side that lost 2-0 to FC Utrecht five days ago. Justin Heekeren replaced Ron-Thorben Hoffmann in goal, while Martin Wasinski, Derry John Murkin, Mehmet Can Aydin and Tobias Mohr all came into the starting XI in place of Tomas Kalas, Ron Schallenberg, Adrian Gantenbein and Anton Donkor.

Bright start to the game

Schalke enjoyed a decent start to the game and created their first opportunity after just four minutes: Moussa Sylla narrowly failed to get on the end of a cross from the left wing. Moments later, Janik Bachmann did well in midfield and found Tobias Mohr out wide, however he couldn’t keep his shot down. Sylla also cleared the crossbar after 13 minutes, but the opening exchanges belonged to Schalke, who had their opponents pegged back in their half.

Twente’s first shot came in the 16th minute and they then had the best chance of the first half four minutes later. Sem Steijn hit the bar and Justin Heekeren was able to gather the loose ball (20’). S04’s best moment before the break was after 29 minutes. Sylla picked out Mohr and he passed it to the overlapping Derry John Murkin. The defender’s shot on his right foot flew just over.

Coach Geraerts made six changes for the second half: Marcin Kaminski, Adrian Gantenbein, Anton Donkor, Ron Schallenberg, Sebastian Polter and Henning Matriciani came on for Paul Seguin, Moussa Sylla, Kenan Karaman, Janik Bachmann, Emil Højlund and Derry John Murkin. Two fresh faces were involved in S04’s first chance after the interval: Matriciani did excellently to win the ball on the wing and played it Polter in the box, however he missed the target from close range (53’).

Both teams continued to search for an opening goal, albeit without success. Tobias Mohr’s attempt from distance was kept out by former S04 goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall, while Kaminski blocked a dangerous shot from Mitchell van Bergen for a corner (63’). Polter found himself clean through on goal in the 71st minute, only for Unnerstall to hold on to his low shot.

No goals late on

The goalkeepers Heekeren and Unnerstall were not called into action in the closing stages, meaning the Royal Blues’ friendly with FC Twente ended goalless, despite several good chances throughout the game.