Kaiserslautern beats Schalke and moves past

1. FC Kaiserslautern has ended its series of defeats in the 2nd Bundesliga. Lautern clearly defeated Schalke and left the “Royal Blues” behind in the table.

With the 4:1 (1:0) in front of a crowd of 50,000 fans at Betzenberg, Lautern moved past Schalke in the 2nd Bundesliga table and is now in 14th place. Schalke has not won in three games and is also still in danger of relegation and as 15th in the table is still three points ahead of the relegation zone.

For Lautern it was their first win in the league after seven defeats in a row. For coach Dimitrios Grammozis, who took over Dirk Schuster’s team, it was the first victory in the 2nd Bundesliga as FCK coach. Grammozis was already under criticism, there was talk of a player revolt – Grammozis spoke of it “Lie” and “character assassination”. On the ARD microphone, Grammozis said that “The last few days have been very challenging”.

Kaiserslautern starts better and takes the lead

Kaiserslautern was the better team at the start and took the lead through Ragnar Ache. Marlon Ritter had taken a free kick towards the Schalke goal, Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann deflected the ball forward, which Ache took advantage of to make it 1-0 (10th minute). The FCK then withdrew a little, which Schalke initially did not take advantage of.

Schalke equalizes, but Lautern wins the game

Darko Churlinov, on loan at Schalke 04 for the second time, scored the equalizer after the restart. During a counterattack, Churlinov received the ball from Kenan Karaman, Churlinov remained the winner against goalkeeper Julian Krahl (51st). But Kaiserslautern found decisive answers.

Richmond Tachie crossed from the right, Ache put a header from the half-left position in the penalty area into the goal on the right (59th). Then a double strike brought the decision: After a free kick, Boris Tomiak fed Filip Stojilković in the middle, who headed into the goal from four meters to make it 3-1 for Kaiserslautern (67th). A little later, Aaron Opoku moved from the left side towards the middle, but was hardly attacked; goalkeeper Fährmann only deflected his shot into the right corner (70th).

“We are not there in the duels, we feel like we come too late in every situation. Lautern was very grippy, very aggressive”said Schalke’s Karaman to Sportschau. “We have to be clear about the seriousness of the situation, we have a very important game against Braunschweig.” Karaman said he could understand the fans’ angry criticism. Sports director Marc Wilmots spoke about Sky “Fear” and “head problems”. He also stated: “We are in the middle of a relegation battle.”

Lautern with a great chance of winning the cup, Schalke hosts Braunschweig

Kaiserslautern has a great chance to reach the semi-finals of the DFB Cup in the game against Hertha BSC on Wednesday (January 31, 2024).

On the next match day of the 2nd Bundesliga, FCK will play against SV Elversberg on Sunday (1.30 p.m.). Schalke welcomes the 16th place in the table on Saturday (February 3, 2024, 1 p.m.). Eintracht Braunschweig.

World champion Durm says goodbye

Kaiserslautern said goodbye to Erik Durm before the game. The 2014 world champion announced his retirement at the end of January. “Unfortunately, since the summer of last year, I have repeatedly had to struggle with minor injuries and health problems, which have meant that I have not been able to help the FCK as much as I personally and the club would have liked,” Durm said.