die Königsblauen send Werder to bottom half of table

By: Porter | February 7th, 2009

There is no denying it, leading into today’s match Schalke backs were against the wall as the season has been laced with many disappointments. The start of the new year season was soiled losing to Hannover 96 and a victory against Werder was necessary. And respond with a victory was precisely what they did, as they sent Werder to the bottom half of the table, winning 1-0.

The match was played with an air of caution going forward as both sides were fearful of being caught in a prone position. Somewhat surprisingly Fred Rutten decided to keep both Kevin Kurányi and Orlando Engelaar on the bench to start to match. There was little to note of the first thirty minutes as the overall play was from box to box and marking was textbook perfect. The first true opportunity came just past the half-hour when Ivan Rakitić drive from the left side of the box drifted wide. As the half was coming to a close Jefferson Farfán cross into the box was headed wide by Halil Altintop.

Following the break Kevin Kurányi came in for Halil Altintop and whether something material or just by co-incidence three minutes later Schalke had the lead as Jefferson Farfán’s cross was headed in by Benedikt Höwedes. Six minutes later Werder’s Mesut Özil provided Markus Rosenberg an opportunity to level but his attempt from the right side of the box was saved by Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Realizing what was at stake, Werder poured forward and looked on the verge of scoring on a number of occasions but couldn’t pull the trigger. With twenty minutes remaining Mesut Özil again showed his promise, setting up Naldo from point blank range but Neuer was up for the challenge. The final five minutes was a wild ride of holding back Werder with Torsten Frings last gasp effort as regulation time ran down but Schalke held off and won 1-0.

Don’t count Schalke out!