Mhe evening game in the Bundesliga between Schalke 04 and Borussia Mönchengladbach ended with a wild outburst of emotions. Almost the entire substitute bench of the traditional Gelsenkirchen club and even goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow ran to the corner flag in injury time, where Marius Bülter was celebrated for his penalty goal to make it 2-2, which gave Schalke 04 their first point of the new season. A point that is worth much more than can be read from the table. That penalty goal was “extremely important”, said Simon Terodde, important for self-confidence, important for the mood and important for the belief in the work of the referees.
Two defeats at the beginning of the season and a place at the bottom of the table would have created the basis for new feelings of crisis, now Schalke may not have won, but they can feel like winners against injustice. After they had good reason to be annoyed by the intervention of the video assistants last week, a tip from the Cologne basement now led to a penalty in injury time and Schalke’s point win. Patrick Herrmann hit the ball on his hand, which was stretched far from his body. “You can give, unfortunately,” said Christoph Kramer from Gladbach, who was very annoyed about this late equalizer: “It was really stupid in the end”.
The Schalke audience, on the other hand, celebrated a fairly successful return to normality, which they had been missing for more than two years. This encounter was the first Bundesliga home game in a sold-out stadium since the outbreak of the pandemic. In the meantime, the club had fallen, got back on its feet and fundamentally reinvented itself on all levels – team, coach, sporting director, club management. The magic of this new beginning filled the arena right from the start, which the Schalke audience honored with an impressive choreography. The club emblem rose from the north stand like a rising sun, accompanied by a message in royal blue: “You’ve been declared dead a hundred times, then you’ll get up again.” And in the end, this message even fitted the game of that evening.
Excellent first Schalke half
How far Schalke have come in their renewal process in terms of football can then be seen in the excellent first half. The promoted team often gave the ball to Borussia Mönchengladbach, but was well organized and surprisingly had a number of promising moments. “We did really well in the first half, kept getting pinpricks, had a lot of shots,” said coach Frank Kramer and was happy about “the enormous energy and power that is generated” when a Schalke team in this arena the people thrilled with this kind of committed football.
Last but not least, these statements are a compliment to sports director Rouven Schröder, who has rebuilt the squad and apparently made it better. In the past second division season, Schalke’s build-up was often bumpy and less well structured, the team lived on emotions and moments from good individual players like Simon Terodde, Rodrigo Zalazar or Thomas Ouwejan. Now Alex Kral, who is on loan from Spartak Moscow, ordered Schalke’s game. Again and again, nice moves from their own half got in front of the opponent’s goal and Zalazar scored a great goal from almost 30 meters (30′).
The shot didn’t look completely unstoppable for goalkeeper Yann Sommer, and Schalke were lucky that Marcus Thuram didn’t take advantage of Gladbach’s best opportunity in the first half (22nd). But the team of coach Frank Kramer, whom many Schalke continue to watch with great reservations, seemed more mature for half-time, clearer in their own plan and also more dangerous. Until the high quality of Borussia became visible in the second half.
After 72 minutes, the previously somewhat unlucky Marcus Thuram played a pass with his heel to Jonas Hofmann, who pushed the ball through Alex Kral’s legs and then into the goal (72′). And six minutes later, Kral was in the way when Schalke’s goalkeeper Schwolow tried to catch a ball, whereupon Thuram scored from eight meters to make it 2-1. “I was totally happy with my team, we turned the game around, in a charged atmosphere, against Schalker, who did really well and aggressively,” said Daniel Farke, Borussia coach.
The Gladbachers could then flirt with the jump to first place in the table well into injury time, but Bülter scored better on this evening of football and made the people at Schalke very happy for a few moments.
