week 30 - match report

Second-half strikes see Schalke to 2-0 win over Cottbus

Though Schalke and Energie Cottbus were locked goalless at the break, the Royal Blues were confident that the necessary goals would come in the second half, as they had against Stuttgart and Gladbach. And they were proved right in a deserved 2-0 win.

Mirko Slomka was forced to make one change to the side that won in Mainz last week, Dario Rodriguez coming in for the injured Mladen Krstajic (muscle strain). There were no surprises on the tactical front, however. As expected, Cottbus set up a defensive bulwark in front of their own penalty area that frequently had no less than eight outfield players, waiting for a chance to break should Schalke lose possession. But in the first half this strategy failed to produce a single shot on goal for the visitors.

Yet the Royal Blues also struggled to fashion any chances. The best of them was defused by Cottbus keeper Tomislav Piplica when he stopped a Fabian Ernst blockbuster in the 22nd minute. "It was very hard work in the first half, there was hardly any way through", observed Slomka. "In key situations when we won the ball we weren't aggressive enough. We also lacked the fine touch needed to play someone in." The Royal Blues were denied a clear penalty after a foul on Rodriguez in first-half stoppage time, however.

Nevertheless Schalke showed no signs of nerves. "We also won our last two home matches after being goalless at half-time. That gave us a good feeling", said Slomka, adding that his team were determined to force the win. "We upped the pace and put them under pressure." Yet the goal almost arrived at the other end. "We allowed them relatively few chances for an hour and with a bit of luck could have taken the lead when Timo Rost hit the bar", explained Cottbus coach Patrick Sander.

To the relief of the home crowd the opening goal came in the 59th minute when Rost turned a Hamit Altintop cross into his own net. And Marcelo Bordon doubled the lead with a powerful header just minutes later. "We worked the own goal with some nice play", noted Slomka. "And there was so much power and energy behind Bordon's goal - there was simply no stopping him."

In the closing stages Lincoln could have added a third, although the visitors also had opportunities to pull one back. "Towards the end we lacked concentration", admitted Slomka, while his Cottbus counterpart bemoaned his side's failure to take their chances. "It looked fairly straightforward at 2-0, but we didn't sit back and wait for them to add a third and fourth. Instead we had three clear-cut chances to get back into it. If one had gone in, Schalke might have got nervous." But they were foiled by Manuel Neuer, allowing the Royal Blues to maintain their lead at the top of the league. In view of a shots-on-goal ratio of 22 to 3, though, it was understandable that Sander congratulated Schalke on "a deserved victory".

Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Rodriguez, Pander (Bajramovic 87') - Hamit Altintop, Ernst - Lincoln - Asamoah (Halil Altintop 66'), Kuranyi, Özil (Kobiashvili 73')
Cottbus: Piplica - da Silva, McKenna, Mitreski, Cvitanovic - Timo Rost, Kukielka - Baumgart (Gunkel 73'), Munteanu - Kioyo (Skela 69'), Radu (Shao 69')
Goals: 1-0 Rost (59'/own goal), 2-0 Bordon (64')
Attendance: 61,058
Referee: Manuel Gräfe (Berlin)
Yellow cards: Lincoln (4), Özil - Baumgart (4), Kioyo (2), Munteanu (4), da Silva (5/4)