Shortly before the end of a completely messed up season with low-food football, Schalke 04 has at least secured his place in the Bundesliga ahead of time.
In the penultimate home game, Huub Stevens’s team fought their way back to the relegation spot against FC Augsburg with a 0:0 score to prevent them from falling back to the relegation spot. The lead of S04 over VfB Stuttgart before the last two matchdays is seven points.
“The stones fell off my shoulders yesterday when Stuttgart lost. Today we have seen a tactically good game from Schalke up to the 16-meter room. But we didn’t have the penetrating power,” Stevens said.
This means that sports director Jochen Schneider has final planning security and can press ahead with preparations for the coming season. The most urgent personnel is that of the trainer. Stevens, who followed the dismissed Domenico Tedesco in March, will leave the club after the relegation as announced.
Former Huddersfield team manager David Wagner is considered the hottest candidate for succession. Also the position of the sports director is vacant, here the Schalkers should strive for Markus Krösche, who works very successfully at the second league club SC Paderborn.
Eight days after the surprising and highly acclaimed derby victory against rival Borussia Dortmund, it was once again apparent why the runners-up had played so long against relegation this season. S04 had big problems creating clear scoring chances and afforded too many inaccuracies. However, FCA, who had already secured their place in the class since Saturday due to VfB Stuttgart’s 3-1 defeat at Hertha BSC, also invested little, so a game developed at a moderate level.
So the choreography of the Schalker fans, who before the kick-off commemorated with a huge banner of the former manager Rudi Assauer, who died in February and turned 75 on April 30, remained the only highlight for a long time. Only a small uncertainty of the Schalker Keeper Alexander Nübel after a shot of Konstantinos Stafylidis (29.) and a promising attack of S04 over Suat Serdar and Breel Embolo (40.) provided some tension on the field.
