week 12 - match report

Royal Blues lose 1-0 in Cottbus

Setback for FC Schalke 04: the Royal Blues slipped to their second defeat of the season at Energie Cottbus on Friday night and have now gone four league games without a win. Christian Bassila scored the only goal of the game for the home side just after the break in front of 17,012 spectators at the Stadium of Friendship.

"Tonight we lacked that cutting edge going forward and punch in front of goal", said head coach Mirko Slomka in analysis of his team's first away defeat in the league this term.

The Schalke boss made two changes to the side that beat Hannover 2-0 in the DFB Cup on Tuesday. Heiko Westermann came in at left-back in place of Christian Pander, who was forced out by a knee injury. In attack Slomka opted for a 4-3-3 formation rather than a 4-4-2 and named Peter Lovenkrands in his starting eleven for Ivan Rakitic.

The game was played at a fast, competitive pace in the first half and saw Schalke gain the upper hand after around ten minutes. With some aggressive tackling and neat football they controlled the proceedings and created a number of openings, all of which were spurned, however. All too often the final ball lacked the necessary precision.

"In the first half we showed glimpses of our tactical and technical quality. But Cottbus were always quicker to the ball and we didn't win enough second balls. That's where we've excelled in recent matches", said Slomka after the game.

His players neglected to score a goal and found themselves up against a committed Cottbus side who came more into the game with about half an hour gone. Cottbus gradually began to gain the upper hand in midfield and had two good chances through Sorensen, one of which saw the ball hit the bar in the 32nd minute. Schalke's best opportunity fell to their skipper, Marcelo Bordon, who struck the bar with a deflected free-kick.

The Royal Blues got off to the worst possible start after the interval. Following a Cottbus free-kick they failed to clear the ball out of the danger area, Westermann's attempted clearance landing straight at the feet of Bassila, who left Manuel Neuer with no chance from six metres.

Schalke responded by trying everything they could to turn the game around. Yet they were void of ideas in midfield and too toothless in attack to put the Cottbus defence in any serious danger. Halfway through the second half Slomka changed things around, introducing midfielder Mesut Özil and striker Soren Larsen for the injured Kevin Kuranyi and Peter Lovenkrands and reverting to a 4-4-2 in a bid to exert more pressure from midfield.

And though the Royal Blues laid siege to the Cottbus goal, their luck was out when Jermaine Jones hit the bar on 67 and Soren Larsen and Gerald Asamoah missed further opportunities on 77 and 78.  "We didn't start to play until we'd gone behind. Instead of moaning we have to play better football", said Slomka.

For all their commitment the Royal Blues failed to take at least a point out of the game. In addition, Marcelo Bordon was shown a fifth yellow card and will miss the forthcoming home clash with Hamburg.

Cottbus: Tremmel - Da Silva, Mitreski, Kukielka, Cvitanovic - Angelov (Ipsa 90'+4), Bassila, Rost - Skela (Ziebig 83') - Sorensen, Rangelov (Rivic 88')
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Krstajic, Westermann - Jones, Ernst (Rakitic 75') - Grossmüller - Asamoah, Kuranyi (Larsen 65'), Lovenkrands (Özil 65')
Goal: 1-0 Bassila (46')
Referee: Weiner (Giesen)
Attendance: 17,012
Yellow cards: Da Silva (3), Skela (2) - Kuranyi (3), Bordon (5), Grossmüller (2)