Minutes after the final whistle, the home stadium looked like a madhouse. As if all relegation worries had evaporated prematurely with the 2-1 (0-1) win over Werder Bremen, Schalke fans and professionals let their emotions run free. With the last-minute win through two joker goals by Sepp van den Berg (81st) and Dominick Drexler (90th 2), the royal blue belief in staying up in the league returned.
Coach Thomas Reis also shed his restraint and joined the cracking party in ecstasy mode. He suppressed the great respect for the difficult rest of the program, at least for a short time. “It was pure relief. In the situation we are in, a game like this can release additional energy,” commented the football coach.
A good 15 minutes earlier, Schalke’s fifth Bundesliga relegation seemed as good as sealed. After all, the gap between the table penultimate and the relegation place increased to a whopping four points after Marvin Ducksch’s twelfth goal of the season (18th), who was pelted with beer mugs while celebrating the goal. But with the substitutions of the two goal scorers van den Berg and Drexler, Reis initiated the turning point.
Joker stab
“Sometimes you need a bit of luck, too. But we deserved that today,” said Reis, delighted with his joker’s double strike, but also praised the entire team: “The second half was different Energy on the pitch. Everyone’s upped the ante.” Offensive player Marius Bülter reacted similarly euphorically on Sky: “Such victories are of course extremely good. If you score the decisive goal in the last minute, it feels very good.”
Reis hopes that his team will show the same passion in the tricky end of the season with games against Mainz (A), FC Bayern (A), Frankfurt (H) and Leipzig (A) as they did in the second half against Bremen: “You’re like a staggering boxer, but you haven’t fallen yet. Everything’s still in there.” To make matters worse, three of the four games take place away from home. But even Schalke’s recent horror record abroad with just one win in 42 games can’t scare the coach: “Everyone says we have the hardest remaining program. But we’ve been written off many times and have nothing to lose.”
Drexler as the main actor
It fits into the image of a memorable football evening that the winning goal scorer Drexler slipped into the role of the main actor within a short time. Only a minute after he threw himself into a Ducksch shot in dire need and thus prevented Bremen from taking the lead again, he provided redemption for the Royal Blues with his winning goal (90.2). “In the end, I prefer the goal to the save. We had to win the game and we knew what was at stake,” said the match winner.
The quick comeback of Sebastian Polter, who came on together with Drexler, only three and a half months after tearing the rear cruciate ligament, made Schalke’s luck perfect. “I can’t do much more than that. I’ve worked hard every day for an evening like this over the past few weeks,” commented Polter.
