Everything was set for the first part of FC Schalke 04’s big race to catch up in the 2nd Bundesliga. After HSV lost points (1-1 in Dresden) on Friday and leaders FC St. Pauli (2-2 against Aue) and pursuers Darmstadt 98 (2-2 against Karlsruhe) on Saturday, the Gelsenkirchen team wanted to make up ground right at the start of the year in the table. But nothing came of it.
On the contrary: with some effort, a defeat could still be avoided in the home game against Holstein Kiel on Sunday afternoon. In the 73rd minute, Simon Terodde made up for the deficit to make it 1-1, which kept Schalke on the spot in the promotion race in the second division and dropped back to sixth place in the table behind SV Werder Bremen.
After the end of the game, head coach Dimitrios Grammozis was clearly dissatisfied with the division of points. “It was the difficult game we expected. We are very dissatisfied with the result. We had planned to start with a threesome,” admitted the S04 coach, who was with his team for the tenth time in the 19th league game couldn’t win.
“Unfortunately that’s not enough for our demands today. It was a tough fight. Kiel defended well today, we have to live with the 1-1 draw,” said Grammozis, for whom the tasks in the coming weeks shouldn’t get any easier.
FC Schalke is a guest at FC Erzgebirge Aue, who are threatened with relegation, next Saturday, after which the opponents are Jahn Regensburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf.
FC Schalke: Praise from Grammozis for Sané
However, the 43-year-old still had praise for central defender Salif Sané, who was back in Gelsenkirchen’s starting XI for the first time this season after a long knee injury.
“For the fact that he wasn’t in the starting eleven for a long time, he gave the team good impetus. He was very present,” said Grammozis, who replaced Sané with Marius Lode in the 69th minute.
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