week 32 - match report

Kuranyi gets golden goal in 1-0 win over Nürnberg

In an eventful clash at the VELTINS Arena Schalke came through what head coach Mirko Slomka termed "an extremely tough test" in which the Royal Blues secured a deserved victory over Nürnberg thanks to a second-half header from Kevin Kuranyi.

As announced Slomka made just one change to the side that faced Bochum last week, Levan Kobiashvili coming in for Mesut Özil. And there were no surprises on the tactical front either. "It was the difficult game we had been expecting. Nürnberg played an extreme man-marking game all over the pitch", was the Schalke coach's matter-of-fact analysis. Fabian Ernst was a little more flippant, though, saying: "We were surprised when they didn't follow us into our dressing-room at half-time..."

So the task in the second-half was clear: " To win the game we had to assert ourselves in these one on ones", said Slomka before adding: "It was a really tough test and we struggled a bit to begin with." Most of Schalke's chances in the first half stemmed from set pieces, though everyone in the ground must have thought Marcelo Bordon was going to score when left in space to get in a close-range header (39'). But as in the previous three Schalke home games the teams went in at the break scoreless.

Nevertheless, the Royal Blues drew courage from the fact that they had come out on top in all three of these games (against VfB Stuttgart, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Energie Cottbus). Slomka also decided to make a change, bringing on Özil for Kobiashvili, a move he felt brought more creativity into the game. Schalke began to create chances at will, and the home crowd were incensed when Beauchamp's 57th minute foul on Kuranyi did not result in a penalty. But seven minutes later the mood changed to one of jubilation when the Germany striker headed the winner after some neat work by Hamit Altintop. "The key thing was we kept our composure. In the second half we got our reward for being the better side."

The Royal Blues had several opportunities to extend their lead but were unable to find the target even after Tomas Galasek was sent off on 81. "Even though we failed to finish off any of our counterattacks in the final stages I'm delighted we beat an extremely tough Nürnberg side", said Slomka in summary before looking ahead to next weekend's derby clash in Dortmund: "I think the title race is going to be decided on the final day. We want to go into our last game with an advantage and so we have to do better than we did recently in Bochum."

After some intensive study of the Opta stats Nürnberg boss Hans Meyer kept his analysis brief. "A deserved victory for the potential league champions", he said laconically.

Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Rodriguez, Pander - Ernst, Hamit Altintop - Lincoln (Varela 88') - Asamoah (Halil Altintop 67'), Kuranyi, Kobiashvili (Özil 46')
Nürnberg: Schäfer - Beauchamp, Wolf, Galasek, Pinola (Reinhardt 53') - Spiranovic - Kristiansen (Pagenburg 67'), Engelhardt - Polak (Mintal 71'), Schroth, Saenko
Goals: 1-0 Kuranyi (64')
Attendance: 61,482 (sold out)
Referee: Florian Meyer (Burgdorf)
Red card: Galasek (82'/denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity)
Yellow cards: Bordon (5/2) - Beauchamp (2), Pinola (5/4)