Schalke come from behind to beat Hamburg
31.07.2010
The Royal Blues opened the 2010 LIGA total! Cup with a 2-1 win over Hamburg thanks to goals by Edu and Jermaine Jones. Just three days after joining the club Raul made his starting debut in a deserved victory over the north German side at the VELTINS Arena.
"I wasn't actually planning on playing him," said Schalke manager Felix Magath after the final whistle. "But Raul was desperate to run out so I let him." And the 33-year-old striker almost opened his account with less than three minutes on the clock when he came within a whisker of converting Ivan Rakitic's left-wing free-kick.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Raul's former strike partner at Real Madrid, went one better three minutes later, pouncing on an underhit backpass by Christoph Metzelder to take the ball round Mathias Schober and put Hamburg 1-0 up. "It was obviously an unnecessary goal to concede," said Magath, who sought to take the positives from the early setback. "Instead of letting it unsettle us we continued to play our game." Despite chances for Edu on 14 and Raul on 21, however, his side were unable to find an equaliser before the break (the match involved two 30-minute halves).
Schalke continued to exert pressure on the Hamburg goal after the equaliser and after Raul had again been denied and Jefferson Farfan had headed against the post they eventually got the reward for their efforts on 42 minutes when Edu restored parity, sliding in to net after Raul had sent Farfan clear with a peach of a pass. "The pass that set up the equaliser was superb," raved Magath. "I hope we'll see more like that this season."
Soon after equalising Schalke took the lead when Jermaine Jones took aim from distance and beat Frank Rost with a shot that was not unstoppable. The midfielder had only just come on and after more than a year out through injury celebrated his Arena comeback with the winner.
"Schalke deserved to win," said Hamburg coach Armin Veh, "but even though we lost it was a good test for us." Magath took a similar view, saying: "After some energy-sapping weeks we're on a very good footing."
Schalke: Schober - Uchida (Moritz 31'), Höwedes (Papadopoulos 31'/Matip 41'), Metzelder, Hao - Kluge (Jones 47'), Rakitic - Farfan, Baumjohann (Jendrisek 47') - Raul (Gavranovic 57'), Edu
Hamburg: Rost - Diekmeier (Benjamin 31'), Demel, Westermann (Rozehnal 50'), Ze Roberto) - Jarolim, Rincon (Tesche 31') - San (Castelen 31'), Kacar, Pitroipa (Choupo-Moting 47') - Van Nistelrooy
Goals: 0-1 Van Nistelrooy (6'), 1-1 Edu (42'), 2-1 Jones (49')
Referee: Kinhöfer (Herne)
