Twente - match report

Schalke reliant on results elsewhere after 2-1 reverse at Twente

"We're in a situation where luck is letting us down", said head coach Fred Rutten after the 2-1 defeat at FC Twente in Schalke's final UEFA Cup group match. The result leaves his side's European hopes hanging on a thread.

On the final matchday on 18 December Schalke can only look on and hope that Manchester City and FC Twente, who have already qualified for the next round, do not lose their games at Racing Santander and Paris Saint-Germain respectively. Were that to happen, the Royal Blues would at least progress to the Round of 32 as the third-placed team in their group.

They put themselves in this precarious situation with a defeat at the De Grolsch Veste Stadium. But it is hard to imagine a more unfortunate start to the game. "The first goal was clearly offside", said Rutten, bemoaning the fact that the Turkish officials had incorrectly allowed Robbie Wielaert's second-minute strike to stand. "That left us chasing the game from the start. On top of that we had a tremendous chance for Asamoah and didn't take it and then Heiko Westermann's shot hit the post and unfortunately came back out. That's typical for the situation we're in."

After the interval the Royal Blues stepped up the pressure again. It seemed only a matter of time before the equaliser came, but instead Kenneth Perez extended Twente's lead with a fine shot on the turn on 55 minutes. But still the Royal Blues didn't give up. "In the second half we battled hard and showed a lot of passion as we tried to turn the game round", Rutten said. Fabian Ernst, in particular, had a string of opportunities, yet he and his Schalke team-mates were always just centimetres away from finding the target. And in the 90th minute Benedikt Höwedes could so easily have made it 2-2. "We had the chances but unfortunately we didn't take them. It hurts to lose the way we did", he continued.

The Royal Blues thus slipped to their fourth defeat in the last five competitive matches. "I'm convinced we'll turn things round, but you can only do that by working very hard. We did that today", said Rutten, before conceding: "It's going to be difficult to go through now."

Schalke's disappointment contrasted starkly with the euphoria in the Twente camp. "We knew we had to be strong and give our all and we knew we'd need some luck", said coach Steve McClaren. "Today we had the luck with the first goal, which looked offside. But in view of the work we put in over 90 minutes I think we deserved to win. Everyone at the club can be proud of the players after a great European night."

That goes for the 24,000 crowd, too, who were also delighted to see the visitors section, many of whom maintain friendly links with the Twente fans, celebrate the home team with a Mexican wave after the final whistle. "Thanks Schalke!" echoed around Twente's jewel of a stadium in recognition of the gesture. Scant consolation for the Royal Blues this evening.

Twente: Boschker - Stam (Wellenberg 63'), Douglas, Wielaert, Braafheid - Brama - Janssen, Perez (Tiote 75') - Arnautovic (Denneboom 90'), N'Kufo, Elia
Schalke: Neuer - Rafinha, Höwedes, Krstajic, Westermann - Ernst - Jones (Altintop 69'), Engelaar - Asamoah, Kuranyi, Farfan
Goals: 1-0 Wielaert (2'), 2-0 Perez (55'), 2-1 Asamoah (77')
Referee: Cakir (Turkey)
Attendance: 24,000 (sold out)
Yellow cards: Brama, Perez - Kuranyi