Out of respect for the former club, there wasn’t much celebration, but extremely important goals for their current club: Mehmet Can Aydin and Sidi Sané scored Eintracht Braunschweig’s 2-1 (0-0) win against FC Schalke 04 in the 2nd Bundesliga. The two former “squires” scored in the 60th and 85th minutes, Soufiane El-Faouzi (88th) scored too late for the autumn champions.
“It was a well-deserved victory for Braunschweig, they really deserved it today. We are always self-critical and always want to develop further – but we have already compensated for many failures in the last few weeks, but at some point you can’t make up for it anymore.”said Schalke coach Miron Muslic in the Sportschau interview: “But we can assess it well, Braunschweig did an excellent job. It’s still an incredible path that we’ve taken.”
Even before the game it was clear that Schalke would go into the winter break as league leaders – even though coach Miron Muslic’s team is not the typical top team in a league. The 43-year-old had previously described the secret of success very aptly. “We have absolute control of the game without the ball”said Muslic, whose team doesn’t dominate the opponents in terms of football, but still mostly has it under control with fight, discipline and quality in defense.
Schalke and Braunschwieg offer a half-time with little attack
So it was initially the case in Braunschweig that the hosts looked like the better team, the majority of the game initially took place in Schalke’s half. However, the Muslic team did not allow more than one dangerous shot from Leon Bell Bell, who narrowly missed the goal (11th minute). At least until the 40th minute, when Johan Gomez shot too high from the edge of the penalty area.
Otherwise, almost nothing happened in front of the goals, so Schalke were on target. At half-time, Braunschweig was ahead 4-2 in shots on goal and also in expected goals with 0.39-0.23 – the 0-0 on the scoreboard reflected the game very well. And as is often the case when Schalke played, the density of highlights on both sides was very manageable – which, according to Muslic’s statement, is a quality.
Braunschweig’s Aydin punishes Schalke 04’s passivity
The fact that these qualities are not particularly viewer-friendly was demonstrated by the few shots on goal and the passing rates of both teams, each under 70 percent. And the game continued at this level after the break. But then Bell Bell again had a great chance to take the Braunschweig lead, but he shot too imprecisely when he was free in front of the goal, so Loris Karius was able to parry (58th).
It wasn’t just in this scene that it looked as if Schalke were losing control without the ball – and Braunschweig took advantage of that. After a rebound, Aydin took a direct shot from twelve meters on the right and slammed the ball through the legs of Nikola Katic and Karius into the goal at 118.7 kilometers per hour (60th). Shortly afterwards, the goalkeeper even had to prevent the score from making it 0-2 when Christian Conteh appeared free in front of him after a counterattack (63′).
Braunschweig’s Conteh seriously injured his knee
Because Karius had only had to defend himself eight times this season before this Aydin goal, Schalke is the top team in the second division. Now his team was called upon to attack – and that is not one of the “Royal Blue’s” strengths. Moussa Sylla had a sensible opportunity after a corner, his header went wide (67′), but this scene made it clear that the autumn champions’ great hope was primarily from dead balls.
But then Braunschweig had to worry about Conteh, who went down after a challenge after 70 minutes and was obviously in great pain. The rescue workers had to approach with a stretcher, but the striker managed to leave the pitch independently on one leg, supported by a Braunschweig supervisor – but that didn’t change the fact that the striker probably sustained a serious knee injury in this situation.
With Sané, a second former Schalke player scores
Despite this shock for Braunschweig, nothing changed about the victory until the final whistle – but the result did, because after Aydin, another former Schalke player scored. Sané, the younger brother of national player Leroy, coldly completed a counterattack to make it 2-0 (85th) and finally decided the game. Like Aydin before him, Sané also refrained from celebrating excessively – although the duo ensured an extremely important victory for their team.
Thanks to the success, Braunschweig is 13th in the table. With 20 points in a very comfortable situation at the halfway point of the season, after the winter break on January 16th they will face a direct competitor in the relegation battle in their own stadium, 1. FC Magdeburg (6.30 p.m.). “I’m really proud of my team, we played a great game. So we’re going into the winter break really happy, we’re now stronger.”said coach Heiner Backhaus in the Sportschau interview.
Schalke woke up too late that afternoon, although there was a goal from El-Faouzi in the 88th minute and a hit on the post from Mika Wallentowitz in stoppage time. So it remained the league leaders’ third defeat of the season. He starts the second half of the season at Hertha BSC on January 17th (8:30 p.m.) and has a real top game ahead of him.