Schalke 04: This black series should finally end in Cologne
Gelsenkirchen.
FC Schalke 04 starts the Bundesliga season at 1. FC Köln on Sunday. At the start, S04 has not won for years.
After more than a year Schalke 04 back to the stage of Bundesliga. The climber started with a guest appearance at 1. FC Cologne on Sunday (5.30 p.m.) into the new season.
The newly formed Royal Blues gave their first taste of the game in the 5-0 victory in the DFB Cup against lower-class Bremer SV, and now the anticipation of the start of the league is growing. The district club has had little to smile about on the first day of the game in recent years. The fans have been waiting for a win at the start of the season for five years now.
The last time that happened was in the 2017/18 season: Schalke beat RB Leipzig 2-0 in an exciting duel, Nabil Bentaleb and Yevgen Konoplyanka scored the goals. The joy about that evaporated only a week later, because the Knappen lost 1-0 at Hannover 96. Nevertheless, in retrospect, the successful start can be seen as a good omen. S04 then ended the season as runners-up.
Schalke: Years of promotion and relegation begin with defeats
It was different last season. After relegation, there was another damper at the start of the second division. In the home game against Hamburger SV, Schalke gambled away a half-time lead, it was 1:3 after the final whistle. There was no sign that the Gelsenkirchen team would return to the top flight at the end of the season, even as champions.
On the other hand, the first matchday of the 2020/19 season gave a first glimpse of the dark times that were to follow. With FC Bayern, Schalke caught what was probably their most ungrateful opponent. But even pessimists probably didn’t see that they would go under like that in Munich. S04 conceded a 0:8, remained without a win until the 15th match day and had to go down as the bottom of the table.
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After all, Schalke started the 2019/20 season with a draw. The result after the guest appearance at Borussia Mönchengladbach is 0:0. A year earlier there was a 2-1 defeat at VfL Wolfsburg – and overall a pretty messed up start with five defeats in a row. The last kick-off success abroad is even further back. In 2015, Schalke celebrated a clear 3-0 win at Werder Bremen – thanks to goals from Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and a Bremen own goal.
Seven years later, coach Frank Kramer’s team would like to continue on Sunday in Cologne. FC’s balance sheet during this period is more varied: there were four wins and three defeats. The start of the last season was a complete success with a 3-1 home win against Hertha BSC.
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