The hope of an upward trend at Schalke 04 has evaporated for the time being.
A week after the spectacular 4:3 win against 1. FC Magdeburg, coach Thomas Reis’ team suffered another setback with a 1:3 (1:1) at FC St. Pauli, the relegated team is living up to its own expectations 2. Bundesliga miles behind.
A brace from Marcel Hartel (21st, hand penalty after video evidence/57th) and Tomas Kalas’ own goal (90th + 2) decided an entertaining game and initially promoted the still unbeaten Hamburgers to second place in the table.
Sebastian Polter (29th) had given the guests hope for at least one point. Schalke is stuck in the bottom of the table.
St. Pauli initially had more of the game and created a few opportunities after a cautious initial phase. With a triple chance, first Elias Saad, then Johannes Eggestein and finally Connor Metcalfe could have taken the lead (16th).
Shortly afterwards, Eggestein (18th) only hit the post. Because Lino Tempelmann had his hand on the ball during a Metcalfe follow-up shot, referee Frank Willenborg (Osnabrück) decided on a hand penalty according to the video images – and Hartel stayed cool.
FC Schalke 04 comes back – but St. Pauli is more mature
Schalke came back quickly, but Polter’s goal came completely out of nowhere. The attacker tipped a Thomas Ouwejan cross into the goal.
Overall, Hamburg remained the more mature team, even if Schalke invested more after the break.
Hartel rewarded a good performance by the hosts with a left-foot shot, who then had to tremble a bit: Schalke combined several times into promising finishing positions, but Yusuf Kabadayi (61′) and Polter (64′) missed.