week 8 - match report
Asamoah puts shoulder into home win over Frankfurt
After two home defeats in a row the Royal Blues turned things round at the VELTINS Arena on Friday evening, claiming a hard-fought 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in a game that was tough going for long stretches but all action in the closing stages.
"It was important to win at home this time", emphasised a relieved Felix Magath afterwards, "because we know how quickly the chitchat about our having a complex about playing at home can start and potentially weaken the team."
Kevin Kuranyi returned to the attack after recovering from a cold, Halil Altintop dropping to the bench. But the Schalke strikeforce showed little initial threat as the visitors dominated the possession. In a largely sluggish first half the Royal Blues struggled to impose themselves on the proceedings. "We lacked passion and didn't do enough to open the game up", said Magath.
The Schalke players seemed to use the half-time break to go inside themselves because they showed much more bite in the second period. Magath also adjusted his formation with the introduction of Gerald Asamoah for Levan Kenia just before the hour, leaving Schalke with no attacking midfielder on the field. The change had the desired effect, though, and the tension among the crowd turned into deafening jubilation just eight minutes later. Lukas Schmitz whipped a free-kick into the penalty area, where Asamoah launched himself horizontally in the air. And after he had diverted the ball into the net there was only one question. How? "With my shoulder", the striker explained with a huge grin on his face before adding: "Who cares what part of the body it was, as long as it goes in!"
Quite, because by opening the scoring some two hours before his 31st birthday Asamoah gave himself an early present and his team more assurance. "We forced the goals by showing more aggression and mounting more pressure", said Magath. Goal number two arrived in stoppage time after a wave of unsuccessful counterattacks. Eintracht goalkeeper Jan Zimmermann, on as a half-time replacement for the injured Oka Nikolov and wearing yellow and black, brought down Jefferson Farfan in the box. And despite going the right way there was nothing he could do to stop the Peruvian's spot-kick. The visitors had been reduced to ten men by this stage after Pirmin Schwegler was shown a second yellow card in the 85th minute for persistent foul play.
The two-nil final score was not necessarily one many would have predicted at half-time. "Unfortunately we didn't create too many dangerous openings", said Eintracht coach Michael Skibbe, "which is a great pity because a point was within our reach today." His Schalke counterpart took a similar view, saying: "Eintracht put in a strong performance. Our attacking game isn't where we want it to be just yet. I'm glad our set pieces are a threat and we won today."
Magath also attributed credit for the victory to the sell-out VELTINS Arena crowd, who once again gave the team their unconditional backing: "They won the game as well. Although our performance in the first half wasn't a good one, they backed us throughout and in doing so played a part in the three points."
Schalke: Neuer - Höwedes, Zambrano, Bordon, Westermann - Moritz (Pliatsikas 78'), Rafinha, Schmitz, Kenia (Asamoah 58') - Farfan, Kuranyi (Rakitic 83')
Frankfurt: Nikolov (Zimmermann 46') - Ochs, Franz, Chris, Spycher - Steinhöfer (Caio 72'), Teber, Schwegler, Köhler - Meier, Amanatidis (Liberopoulos 61')
Goals: 1-0 Asamoah (66'), 2-0 Farfan (90'+2/penalty)
Referee: Kempter (Sauldorf)
Red card (second yellow): Schwegler (85'/persistent foul play)
Yellow cards: Asamoah, Zambrano (3), Farfan, Rafinha - Chris (3), Teber (5), Zimmermann
Attendance: 61,673 (sold out)
