League leaders Schalke 04’s negative streak in the second division continues. The traditional club was unable to win for the fifth time in a row on Saturday despite a 2-0 lead against Dynamo Dresden. In the end the score was 2:2 (0:0) against the strong Saxons.
The moment when the game broke was quickly found: it happened in the 72nd minute. At this point, coach Miron Muslic replaced the outstanding man with Edin Dzeko. The veteran Bosnian star, who came from Florence during the winter break, was in the starting line-up for the first time and immediately demonstrated his outstanding quality in this league. After a mediocre first half for both teams, the 39-year-old gave his team the lead in the 52nd minute with a direct shot. 18 minutes later, Dzeko made it 2-0 with a powerful long-range shot. It was his third goal for the new club, one he had already scored as a substitute.
But when Dzeko was substituted, his team seemed to have the plug pulled in the sold-out stadium. With the feeling of certain victory, Schalke let Dresden back into the game and onto the scoreboard. First Schalke’s Hasan Kurucay hit his own goal after a sharp cross (78′), then Thomas Keller equalized (87′), which was celebrated in the visitors’ block.
Hertha ready for the cup game against Freiburg
The fact that Schalke remained in first place, at least until the evening, was also due to SV Elversberg’s first home defeat of the season. The Saarlanders lost 0:3 (0:1) against the Hertha BSC team, which had previously drawn five times in a row. The result was much clearer than the course of the game, but for once the Berliners used their chances efficiently.
Pascal Klemens with a header after a corner (42nd), Luca Schuler after a counterattack (58th) and Toni Leistner with a hard shot under the crossbar (78th) rekindled the promotion ambitions in the capital. The team also seems prepared for the cup quarter-finals in their own stadium on Tuesday against SC Freiburg.
In the third game on Saturday, SC Paderborn also underlined their desire to play first-class again with a 2-1 (2-0) win.
