Royal Blues start Victoria Cup with 3-1 win over Freiburg
09.01.2008
The Royal Blues won their first game of 2008 despite being a man down for 60 minutes. Mirko Slomka's men beat SC Freiburg 3-1 in the opening match of the Victoria Cup, a tournament that is taking place during the club's training camp in Turkey. Ivan Rakitic (13'), Peter Lovenkrands (26') and Soren Larsen (79') got the goals for Schalke, Dennis Aogo (49') replied for Freiburg. Levan Kobiashvili was shown the red card for a last-man foul in the 30th minute, however.
After both sides had spent the opening exchanges feeling each other out, the first threat on goal came after ten minutes. Freiburg's Henrich Bencik played a clever ball into the penalty area, but Heiko Westermann stepped in to clear as Mirnes Mesic shaped to shoot. The Royal Blues dominated much of the first-half proceedings and took a deserved lead three minutes later when Ivan Rakitic bent a free-kick in off the underside of the bar.
They then enjoyed their best spell of the game, moving the ball quickly through the midfield and looking especially dangerous down the right. After Fabian Ernst's header from Rafinha's cross and a Rakitic shot from a Halil Altintop pass had failed to find the target, the Royal Blues eventually doubled their lead on 26 minutes. Carlos Grossmüller, operating as a second holding midfielder alongside Ernst, burst forward and slipped the ball through to Gerald Asamoah on the left. His cross was met by Peter Lovenkrands at the far post, and the Dane had no problem knocking the ball over the line from close range.
Schalke were briefly knocked out of their stride on the half-hour when the Turkish referee dismissed Levan Kobiashvili for bringing down Jonathan Pitroipa just outside the area. The resulting free-kick by Dennis Aogo was brilliantly saved by Mathias Schober. And after Mesic had failed to convert a shooting opportunity on 35, Schalke regained control of the game. Halil Altintop missed two chances to make it 3-0 before the break.
Freiburg put themselves back in contention four minutes into the second half when Aogo pulled a goal back from 14 metres. And they almost found an equaliser five minutes later, but Schober was alert in saving Pitroipa's shot from a narrow angle. The game then lost some of its momentum as both sides made a number of changes and the Royal Blues looked to compensate for being a man down.
But with eleven minutes left Schalke put the result beyond doubt after a fine counterattack involving Ernst, Grossmüller and Lovenkrands, who played Larsen in with a superb through ball. And the Denmark striker wasted no time in finding the far corner to make it 3-1.
FC Schalke 04: Schober - Rafinha, Höwedes, Westermann, Kobiashvili - Grossmüller, Ernst - Rakitic (Özil 46') - Asamoah (Larsen 46'), Altintop (Ze Roberto 67'), Lovenkrands
SC Freiburg: Langer - Schwaab, Krmas (Khizaneishvili 46'), Butscher (Mehring 71'), Schutzbach - Ampomah, Konrad (Toprak 71'), Aogo (Barth 61'), Pitroipa (Schlitte 61') - Bencik (Roth 46'), Mesic (Cafu 46')
Goals: 1-0 Rakitic (12'), 2-0 Lovenkrands (26'), 2-1 Aogo (49'), 3-1 Larsen (79')
