Schalke 04 continue to grind out surprise results against big clubs, this time adding hated rival Borussia Dortmund to the list of sides they've taken points off of when they were expected to do very little. They got off to a hot start on Saturday, scoring twice in the opening half-hour, and were able to hang on for a 2-1 win.
3 things we learned from Schalke’s surprise 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund
Sascha Steinbach
Dortmund came out with a surprising lineup, featuring two strikers and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang as a winger. They weren’t terrific in midfield playing this way, leading to Schalke being able to create multiple set piece opportunities on the break. They capitalized on them quickly.
Joel Matip scored the opener, and he made Mats Hummels look very bad in the process. Hummels, playing his first game of the season after recovering from an injury, lost Matip on a 10th minute corner, allowing him an unmarked header. In the 23rd minute, Schalke scored on a corner again, as BVB failed to clear on multiple occasions and a blocked shot by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar fell to Maxim Choupo-Moting for an easy finish.
The visitors struck back to make the game interesting not long after that, and it was clear to see what Klopp was going for with his unorthodox team selection on their 26th minute goal. Adrian Ramos set it up, hitting a ball across the box from the right flank that found Aubemeyang, who lost his marker and scored.
BVB were the better side from then on, but certainly not spectacular, and looked under threat of giving up another goal on a set piece or counter-attack. Their best chance of the second half came very early, in the 49th minute, when Ciro Immobile forced Ralf Fährmann into a brilliant save.
Shinji Kagawa entered in the 57th minute, marking a formation change for Dortmund. It was a positive one and they dominated the final half-hour of the match, but were unable to find an equalizer. There was nearly a 93rd minute exclamation point of a breakaway goal for Huntelaar, but Roman Weidenfeller came up with a brilliant save, though it ultimately did his team no good.
Schalke: Fährmann, Aogo, Neustädter, Matip, Uchida, Höger (Ayhan 79’), Boateng (Fuchs 71’), Choupo-Moting, Meyer, Sam (Clemens 37’), Huntelaar
Goals: Matip (10’), Choupo-Moting (23’)
Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Durm, Hummels (Sokratis 80’), Subotic, Piszczek, Großkreutz (Jojic 69’), Bender, Ginter, Aubemeyang, Ramos, Immobile (Kagawa 57’)
Goals: Aubameyang (26’)
3 things
1. 4-4-2 wasn't the best choice for Dortmund - Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus weren't available for Dortmund in this game, but Milos Jojic and Shinji Kagawa were. Despite that, Jürgen Klopp decided to go with a surprising 4-4-2 formation, and it didn't work that well. BVB's central defenders tried to bypass a pretty non-existent midfield and regularly gave the ball away doing it. Once Kagawa came on for Ciro Immobile, Dortmund started to dominate.
2. Mats Hummels is rusty - This was the first game of the season for Dortmund star and captain Mats Hummels, and he looked every bit the part of a player who didn’t have a preseason. He was completely lost twice by Joel Matip on Schalke’s opener, played his part in the second as well and had some bad turnovers. He’ll be fine, but maybe a Revierderby wasn’t the time to bring him back.
3. Schalke are magic - Even without almost all of their first choice defense, their first choice midfielder playing in defense and Julian Draxler out, Schalke are finding ways to squeak out results. A number of the players on the pitch on Saturday won’t make their 18-man squad regularly in a couple of months. They’re doing a really good job of treading water until they have a good squad at their disposal.
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