week 5 - match report

Excellent first half sees Schalke to deserved win over Frankfurt

The biggest praise came from the opposition: "Congratulations Schalke for what was a deserved 1-0 win", said Eintracht Frankfurt coach Friedhelm Funkel after the final whistle. Fred Rutten will only have been pleased with his side's first-half showing, however.

The Schalke boss made two changes to the side that won 4-1 away to APOEL in the UEFA Cup five days ago, recalling Jermaine Jones and Kevin Kuranyi in place of Vicente Sanchez and Gerald Asamoah.

With Frankfurt sitting back as usual, the Royal Blues sought to gain control of the game early on by keeping possession of the ball. Then they gradually stepped up the pressure on the Frankfurt goal with an impressive display of attacking football. "We had a very good first half. Our pass and move play in our opponents' half was very high tempo and that allowed us to create some excellent chances", summarised Rutten.

Farfan hit the bar (14'), Krstajic missed by a whisker with a back-heel (15') and Rafinha was denied by Nikolov (24'), as was Rakitic (42'). But Schalke took a well deserved lead when Patrick Ochs, under challenge by the impressive Jefferson Farfan, put through his own net (41.). "It's a shame the goal came so late in the half. If we'd scored earlier, it would have made things easier", said Rutten.

Frankfurt were already down to ten men by this stage after Chris was shown the red card for elbowing Heiko Westermann (34'). The man advantage does not always equate to an easy three points, however. "The expectations of the fans were definitely rising. Everyone thought we were bound to score another two or three", explained general manager Andreas Müller. The visitors, however, had other ideas. "I also have to congratulate my players, who kept their defensive shape very well for an hour despite being a man down. "We frequently brought Schalke to a standstill in the second half", said Funkel.

A view shared by Rutten: "In the second half we didn't play as well. Our pass and move game didn't have enough tempo. That makes it very difficult to find gaps in the opposition defence to play the ball into." Further chances were few and far between, with only Kuranyi (52'), Sanchez (82') and Engelaar (84') threatening. Despite this, the narrow victory was never really in danger. Funkel may have seen things slightly differently: "We did have a half chance in the 66th minute when Liberopoulos didn't quite catch the ball properly. There was no lack of will, effort and passion on our part. Our aim was to play a counterattacking game, but unfortunately we lacked the strength because Schalke had loads of possession and had us running round. We also had one or two set pieces in the closing stages where you always hope something might happen."

But nothing did happen, which Rutten was keen to emphasise: "On the positive side we didn't let them mount any counterattacks and we kept our defensive shape. I can understand that it wasn't entirely to the crowd's liking. We didn't manage to maintain our pace on the ball for 90 minutes. But we aren't capable of that yet. It was a shame for the fans - but it was for me as well. But everyone in football knows that playing against ten men is more difficult than it looks." The bottom line, however, is that Schalke have now won all three of their home games this season without conceding a goal.

Schalke: Fährmann - Rafinha, Bordon, Krstajic, Kobiashvili - Westermann, Jones, Engelaar - Farfan, Kuranyi (Streit 83'), Rakitic (Sanchez 72')
Frankfurt: Nikolov - Ochs, Russ, Galindo, Spycher - Chris - Fink, Toski (Bellaid 39') - Meier, Fenin (Steinhöfer 85') - Liberopoulos
Goal: 1-0 Ochs (own goal 41')
Referee: Fandel (Kyllburg)
Attendance: 61,542
Red card: Chris (violent conduct 34')
Yellow cards: Galindo, Spycher, Fenin