A superb first half performance was enough to give Schalke all 3 points as they defeated rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 at the Veltins-Arena.
First half goals from Julian Draxler and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ensured the Champions League hopefuls would claim the 3 points and stayed strong after Lewandowski pulled one back for the visitors.
Although having more possession at the start of the game, Dortmund were ineffective in control of the ball and struggled to create chances. A well organised Schalke defence was happy to sit back and wait for the opportunity to counter.
Schalke's chance to take the lead came after 12 minutes, which they took. Atsuso Uchida had space on the right and drove a low ball into the box where Draxler finished the move with a half-volley. It almost got worse for Dortmund moments later and they had Weidenfeller to thank as he denied Huntelaar at point-blank range.
In a hotly contested first half, both sides had chances. Jakub Blaszczykowski wasted a chance to equalise when he dragged his shot wide of the goal before Mario Gotze was on hand at the other end of the pitch to clear Joel Matip's header off the line.
The home side soon got their second, with the opportunity again being created down the right flank. Uchida was the architect again and he found Huntelaar in the middle, who doubled the advantage for the home side as the Dortmund defence went missing.
Before the interval, Lewandowski saw his effort disallowed for offside but there could be no arguing at the interval as Dortmund had not been up to scratch.
Jefferson Farfan wasted a chance to put his side 3 goals to the good when he struck a shot straight at the keeper. The Peru international must have been thankful when he saw Sven Bender's goal disallowed for a push, the second time in a match that the officials denied the away side a goal.
With half an hour left to play Dortmund were given a glimpse of hope. Lewandowski timed his run to perfection and ran through onto Bender's pass. One-on-One with the keeper, the Polish international cooly dispatched to bring his side back into the match.
The goal struck life into Dortmund, who threw everything forward in search of an equaliser. However, the home side stayed strong at the back and still look threatening on the counter, with Weidenfeller superbly denying Teemu Pukki and Farfan blazing the ball over the bar from just yards out, a chance that he should have taken to kill the game.
Farfan must have been thankful that the miss did not come back to haunt him and Schalke moved up to 4th in the table. Dortmund remain in second place but fall further off the pace of leaders Bayern after they defeated Dusseldorf.
0 comments:
Post a Comment