Womoglich already on sunday the club wants to decide about the remaining of coach jens keller, who was not on the bench for the hinrundeabschluss: the 43-year-old had to stay in the hotel room because of a hard-naked stomach flu and was represented by assistant peter herrmann.
The game in nurnberg was seen as the fateful match for keller, who had long been the subject of criticism. But without the ailing kevin-prince boateng, keller’s proteges lack verve, penetrating power and commitment for a long time. In the fight for their first win of the season, the FCN really struggled against the guests, but missed numerous chances and the victory.
Already the first quarter of an hour belonged alone to the nurnbergers. The strong hiroshi kiyotake was convincing as a playmaker, but not as an enforcer. After three minutes, the japanese failed to clear schalke’s goalkeeper ralf fahrmann, and shortly afterwards, kiyotake dribbled from the right corner of the penalty area and shot just wide of the goal (23).). Daniel ginczek (10.) awarded immediately in the initial phase.
However, the nurnbergers were not put off by the first failures in the opponent’s penalty area, but continued to push for the lead with all means at their disposal. Highly motivated, the franks threw themselves into every duel and repeatedly scored goals. After makoto hasebes (31.) deflected shot, the offside goal by josip drmic (35.) for a lot of excitement, but again not for cheers.
The schalkers disappointed especially in the first half all along the line. Without any forward momentum and with many holes at the back, the champions league eighth finalists were clearly inferior to the hosts, who were in danger of relegation. Except for two desperate shots by jermaine jones (29).) and roman neustadter (42.) the gelsenkirchen attack went nowhere, and on top of that christian fuchs injured his knee in front of 42,687 spectators and had to be replaced early in the game.
In half two, too, the million-man ensemble failed for a long time to match the playing qualities of jefferson farfan& co. To put in scene. Instead, the nurnbergers – most recently with three home victories against S04 in a row – started off increasingly desperate. Shortly after the restart, drmic again found himself alone in front of fahrmann after kiyotake’s clever cross (55).), but schalkes schlussmann clarified in hochster emergency with a fubabwehr. Four minutes later, a long-distance shot by the swiss striker flew just past to the left.
FCN missed its best chance of all with just under a quarter of an hour to go when defender per nilsson headed a shot against the crossbar from ten yards out. Preceded by a wide flank of kiyotake.