week 21 - match report

Slomka criticises forward play after 1-0 reverse in Leverkusen

No one was disputing the luck involved in Manuel Friedrich's winning goal. But while Schalke coach Mirko Slomka had words of praise for his defence after the 1-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen, he was forthright in his criticism of his team's forward play.

Before the game the main question was how the two rivals for a Champions League spot would cope with the exertions of playing in Europe during the week, with Leverkusen having less than 48 hours to recuperate. The after-effects were noticeable on both sides, even though Slomka correctly described the encounter as a "battle for 90 minutes".

Genuine chances remained a rarity in the first half. Bernd Schneider's tenth minute shot was the closest the home side came to scoring, while at the other end a handball by Manuel Friedrich in the penalty area exposed the grey areas in the rulebook once again.

"We didn't deserve to lose if you look at our defensive performance", said Slomka after the final whistle. "Leverkusen are a very good side but we were well organised and the midfield was good as well." Which was why the Royal Blues survived the few precarious situations after the interval, when Castro narrowly missed the target on 59 and Freier squandered two opportunities in the Schalke box with ten minutes left.

Yet Schalke struggled with one aspect of their game for the entire 90 minutes: "We won lots of possession but didn't do enough with the ball going forward. Our combination play was poor apart from the move that led to the chance for Kobiashvili", said Slomka. But the Georgian international's right-foot shot missed the far post by a whisker.

So a draw would have been a fair result were it not for the 85th minute. "The game was decided by a mishit cross that flew into the top far corner", said Leverkusen coach Michael Skibbe, describing Friedrich's fluke effort. "The goal was very lucky, it was meant to be a cross", agreed Slomka. "But you have to go back a bit: after winning the ball we play a far too casual pass upfield and give it away again."

"That was typical of our attacking play. Overall our strikers didn't hold the ball up very well. We have to be very critical of our forward play", added Slomka, who is further concerned by the recent negative trend. "We've now lost twice in a row in the Bundesliga. That's very disappointing, both for the club and the players." Michael Skibbe was in a very different mood: "It was a tremendous display of running and battling by my team. We fought tooth and nail and earned ourselves the three points."

Schalke suffered another blow in stoppage time when Jermaine Jones was shown a second yellow card for alleged use of the elbow in an aerial challenge. The midfielder, again one of Schalke's best in Leverkusen, will therefore miss Saturday's visit of Bayern Munich.

Leverkusen: Fernandez - Castro, Friedrich, Haggui, Sarpei - Rolfes, Vidal (Freier 72') - Schneider (Callsen-Bracker 87'), Barbarez (Gekas 63'), Barnetta - Kiessling
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Bordon, Krstajic, Westermann - Jones, Ernst, Kobiashvili (Altintop 87') - Rakitic (Streit 59') - Asamoah (Lovenkrands 46'), Kuranyi
Referee: Gräfe (Berlin)