Schalke midfielder will join Bayern in the summer and his display against them will have pleased home fans in MunichAt least he ended up with an assist from it. It was a whisker from being one of the goals of the season, as Leon Goretzka threw a bicycle kick at Breel Embolo’s cross, and Sven Ulreich looked beaten. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t connect with his laces but flicked off the outside of his boot – falling to Franco Di Santo at the back post, who applied a measured finish. No matter. It was, Goretzka told Sky afterwards without the smallest hint of bashfulness, something he’d managed before. “It wasn’t as it should have been today,” he shrugged, “but it ended...
For a few weeks Borussia Dortmund’s problem has clearly been confidence, but that won’t have been helped by the remarkable 4-4 draw with SchalkeThe 151st Revierderby was, and will continue to be, notable for a number of reasons. Perhaps chief among them was that it was that rarest of sights; a match which leaves both sides shell-shocked at the final whistle. “This derby will go down in history,” said Schalke’s Amine Harit, who scored the team’s second goal. It was just that, a moment to say in the future “I was there”, to always be remembered. Franco Di Santo grabbed his phone to take a commemorative selfie with Naldo, who scored the equaliser, and skipper Ralf Fährmann. The defender, who...
A 5-0 thrashing at Dortmund could have been worse, even with a dubious VAR decision, and there are already fears of a situation spinning out of controlJörg Schmadtke rushed out to the Sky truck in the TV compound to pore over every possible angle – and to check his eyes weren’t deceiving him. By that point, the Köln sporting director had already been on the Signal Iduna Park pitch, shoulder to shoulder with the coach, Peter Stöger, protesting to the referee, Patrick Ittrich, over the award by VAR of Borussia Dortmund’s second goal. Before any more fingers start pointing at Effzee about an anarchic end to a chaotic week, we should add that this was a reasonable moment for both...
A 0-0 draw at the Signal Iduna Park was a fine result for Schalke but served to increase the pressure on Dortmund’s Thomas TuchelAs if the Revierderby wasn’t claustrophobic enough, Saturday night at the Signal Iduna Park only served to squash the warring neighbours closer together. Nothing at all could separate Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 after 90 draining, goalless minutes, and in the table, too, the Royal Blues (12th and rising) and the Black and Yellows (sixth and falling) were firmly put on a mid-table collision close, having spent the opening weeks of the season at opposite ends, a million miles from each other. Related: Tim Wiese goes from Bundesliga to WWE: ‘I’ve got trash-talking in my blood’ Related:...
Christian Heidel’s side stumbled upon their good fortune against Borussia Mönchengladbach like a late 80s, new-school hop-hop producer acquiring James Brown’s Funky People compilationThe numbers spoke of another humiliation. They were outpassed (231 to 712), outfought (44% to 56% one-v-ones won), outplayed (28% to 72% possession) in front of their home fans. But Schalke 04 had friends in low places on Sunday night; the most important ally of all, in fact, down there, where it really mattered: on the pitch. “The ball was Schalke’s buddy tonight,” winced Borussia Mönchengladbach’s sporting director, Max Eberl. Related: Borussia Dortmund slip to defeat at Bayer Leverkusen in Bundesliga Continue reading...