HSV celebrated a successful start to the second half of the season. Two goals in the first half were enough for Schalke.
Hamburger SV won the atmospheric traditional duel at FC Schalke 04 and underlined its promotion ambitions. Coach Tim Walter’s team defeated the Revierclub 2-0 (2-0) on Saturday evening. As a result, third-placed HSV moved within one point of Holstein Kiel in second place in the 2nd Bundesliga.
In front of 61,992 spectators in the sold-out arena, who created a first division atmosphere, Immanuel Pherai (22nd minute) and Laszlo Benes (35th) scored the goals for the guests. Schalke were vulnerable on defense and too harmless up front despite their high effort. The Gelsenkirchen team did not give the positive signal they had hoped for at the start of the second half of the season. S04 is still in the relegation battle and is only three points ahead of the relegation place.
Unlike in many other stadiums on this match day, the Schalke fans were not silent at the start of the game to demonstrate against the DFL’s investor plans. On the contrary: they loudly cheered on their team and seemed to spur their team on. Schalke started strong and had their first good finish after 4 minutes through Tobias Mohr. However, HSV keeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes was at his post.
Short interruption by Jablonski
After twelve minutes, referee Sven Jablonski had to briefly interrupt the game. Hamburg fans had thrown tennis balls onto the field. They also showed a banner with the inscription “German football remains risk capital”. After the restart, the guests got into the game better. With their opening goal, they also benefited from Schalke’s deficiencies in defense. After a cross from Ignace Van der Brempt, Pherai was inexplicably completely free in the center and headed in effortlessly.
Schalke didn’t let this shock them. The Gelsenkirchen team countered with a lot of energy and were unlucky: a free kick from full-back Thomas Ouwejan hit the crossbar (33′). Benes aimed better: After a low cross from the left side, the Slovakian scored to make it 2-0 for Hamburg.
Shortly after the break, Schalke captain Simon Terodde had the chance to connect. However, the second division record scorer and ex-Hamburg player shot over from a promising position. On the other side, Benes missed Hamburg’s third goal after a counterattack. At the latest when Ouwejan hit the post and thus hit the aluminum for the second time (74th) and Bryan Lasme also failed at the post in stoppage time, it became clear: Schalke also lacked the necessary shooting luck that evening. HSV took the lead over time.