DAfter another defeat, FC Schalke 04 is still stuck in the relegation battle of the 2nd Bundesliga. The Revierclub lost 3:5 (0:3) in the Westschlager at Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday evening and suffered its fourth defeat in the sixth game under new coach Karel Geraerts.
This means Schalke remains in 16th place, while Fortuna improved to third place in the table, at least for one night. In front of 52,000 spectators in the sold-out Düsseldorf Arena, Vincent Vermeij (13th and 26th minutes), Felix Klaus (19th), Christos Tzolis (65th) and Jona Niemiec (90th + 4) scored the goals for the hosts Schalke met Marcin Kaminski (57th), Tomas Kalas (74th) and Bryan Lasme (75th).
Two weeks after the 2-1 defeat against Elversberg, Schalke’s coach used the same starting line-up except for Ralf Fährmann, who returned to goal after injury. But the bill didn’t add up after just 30 minutes. The hosts, who were plagued by serious injury concerns in defense, surprised with a three-man defensive line, into which midfielder Yannik Engelhardt dropped, and two very attacking wide players.
The Düsseldorf team quickly found their rhythm and overran Schalke 3-0 thanks to Vermeij’s brace and Klaus’ goal. The Bundesliga relegated team made blatant defensive errors. After just 33 minutes, Geraerts corrected his formation with three early changes and switched to a four-chain defense. This gave the guests’ game more stability and order. Kaminiski, Kalas and Lasme made things even more exciting in the end after Tzolis made it 4-1. Niemiec then scored to make the final score 5:3.
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