FC Schalke 04’s roller coaster ride in the current second half of the Bundesliga season suddenly continued on the last day of the game. After the 5-2 liberation against Hertha BSC the week before, there was another setback at SC Freiburg on Sunday afternoon. At 0:4, royal blue left the lawn again as the clear loser.
Sports director Peter Knäbel was still combative the day after the Freiburg bankruptcy. “This team has been written off umpteen times and has always fought back, overcoming resistance and mastering great pressure. Together we will do everything we can to do it against Bremen,” the S04 boss told the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”. .
That’s why he doesn’t want to know anything about a mentality or character debate about the team, emphasized Knäbel: “I’m not going down that path.”
After a training-free Monday, FC Schalke 04 will start preparing for the 30th match day on Tuesday when the duel with fellow promoted team Werder Bremen is due at home on Saturday evening.
Knäbel safe: “The same pressure for all clubs in danger of relegation”
While Werder could possibly make it clear that they would stay up five games before the end of the season, the penultimate from Gelsenkirchen is doomed to win.
The experienced Knäbel himself went on to explain what, from his point of view, will be particularly important in order to achieve the sixth win of the season on Saturday evening: “We have to concentrate on what made us strong this year and brought us back into the race. This way applies to do it consistently and to do everything behind the big goal. Then – and only then – will we be able to collect the necessary points.”
The 56-year-old does not believe that his club is currently under pressure compared to direct Bundesliga competition: “The pressure is the same on all clubs in danger of relegation.”