Schalke 04 booked a hard-fought victory in the Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon. Trade in-house die Königsblauen against FC Augsburg, which was beaten thanks to an early goal by Suat Serdar: 1-0. It was Schalke’s first win since January 9, when TSG 1899 Hoffenheim went down 4-0. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar got a starting spot, but was forced to be replaced in the final phase due to an injury. It is not yet known how serious the injury of the Dutchman is.
The team of trainer Dimitrios Grammozis started the encounter energetically, as the score was already opened before the end of the fourth minute of play. From a pass from Huntelaar, Can Bozdogan tested goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz, who released the ball and gave Serdar the opportunity to shoot in from the rebound: 1-0. Five minutes later, Huntelaar made a contribution himself, but his shot did not end up between the posts. Augsburg then took over the initiative.
Halfway through the first half, Ruben Vargas had an excellent deep pass on Marco Richter, who drew the short straw, face to face with goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann. Moments later, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw was also put in position after a corner; his shot from about fifteen meters, however, went over. Subsequently, the captain on the other side made an error by playing a ball straight into the feet of Omar Mascarell, who, to the relief of Gouweleeuw, did not have his sights on sharp.
Ten minutes after the break, Augsburg again had the opportunity to level the score twice. First it was Vargas who was unfortunate in the completion and then Richter failed to get a shot between the posts. Then an impasse broke out, which was broken by Huntelaar ten minutes before time. The striker was allowed to build for a free kick and placed the ball in the top right corner, but Gikiewicz had a nice save at home. Not much later, Huntelaar was sidelined in favor of Matthew Hoppe due to an injury, the seriousness of which is as yet unclear. Despite the victory, Schalke remains stiff at the bottom of the rankings: the gap in the safe sixteenth place is twelve points.