It took until the 74th minute for Bielefeld to appear dangerous again in front of Schalke’s goal. Joel Grodowski ran a through ball and went around goalkeeper Kevin Müller. He placed the ball from the baseline into the middle, where none of his teammates were standing to put the ball into the goal.
Apparently things went better a few minutes later. A long throw-in from Robin Knoche landed in the penalty area, where Roberts Uldriķis headed the ball across to Joel Grodowski, who successfully finished. Ecstasy in the guest block. But a short time later, the video referee reported: Grodowski was just offside when his teammate made the assist. The equalizer didn’t count. As a result, Bielefeld ran, but had no success, so Schalke ultimately secured a well-deserved home win. The fans in the Veltins Arena celebrated with “frontrunner” chants after the final whistle.
SV Elversberg has conquered a direct promotion spot, at least for one night. The Saarland team defeated second-to-last 1. FC Magdeburg on Friday with a late goal from Lukasz Poreba (85th) 1-0 and improved to second place in the table. But several rivals can overtake them again at the weekend. Magdeburg remains in the relegation zone.
The FCM is the weakest home team in the league, but is in the best third away from home. The supposedly clear outsiders also played on equal terms in the Kaiserlinde stadium: Mateusz Zukowski, who didn’t hit the ball correctly (22nd), and Dariusz Stalmach with a header (35th) could have scored the opening goal. Nicolas Kristof in the Elversberg goal was excellent in the short corner.
The SVE were keen to play, but rarely came through dangerously. David Mokwa slipped into a cross pass too late (21′), Immanuel Pherai was denied by FCM goalkeeper Dominik Reimann, who blocked the ball with his upper body after a through pass (25′).
The second half was a tough struggle for possession and the few good opportunities that mostly came from counterattacks for Magdeburg. Elversberg pushed for a late goal, but an FCM defender almost always intervened. Poreba finally flicked the ball into the goal to win.
