FC Schalke 04 v Bayern Munich 2-0
Munich stumble to bitter, avoidable defeat
Bayern had not lost on their last five visits to Schalke, but somehow fashioned a defeat to the limited but ruthless home side on Saturday after utterly dominating the first hour of the match.
The 61,673 capacity crowd at the Veltins Arena, protected from the worst of the elements by the closed roof, saw the champions ease into their stride and create a host of presentable first-half chances, but home keeper Manuel Neuer was in blinding form, Mario Gomez missed a sitter, and Bastian Schweinsteiger hit the post. All the signs were positive for the visitors, but the game was unexpectedly and startlingly turned on its head by second-half strikes from José Jurado and Benedikt Höwedes, to which the flummoxed men in red ultimately had no answer.
A fourth league defeat of the season means the Bavarians slip to seventh in the Bundesliga standings on 23 points from 15 games, seven off second-placed Mainz and 14 behind leaders Dortmund, who play on Sunday. The men from Munich return to league action at home to struggling St Pauli next Saturday, 11 December.
Louis van Gaal made two changes to the side which beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1 last time out. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk stepped back to replace Daniel van Buyten alongside Breno in central defence, the big Belgian taking a seat on the bench next to Martin Demichelis. That allowed captain Mark van Bommel to return from an eight-week lay-off, resuming in defensive midfield with Toni Kroos next to him on this occasion.
Diego Contento also came back from injury at left-back in place of Danijel Pranjic, with attacking midfield three Franck Ribery, Schweinsteiger and Thomas Müller looking to supply on-fire Gomez with scoring chances.
Once referee Peter Gagelmann whistled play underway on a freezing winter night in the Ruhr valley, the teams spent the early minutes feeling each other out, before the home side showed first with a Klaas-Jan Huntelaar header over the bar and an Ivan Rakitic volley into the crowd.
But FCB seized the initiative after fifteen minutes and the chances began to come. Kroos fired a free-kick into the wall, before Ribery whistled a right-footer just wide of the post after a flowing move initiated by Kroos and Müller, and Schweinsteiger saw an acrobatic back-stick volley fingertipped away for a corner by home keeper Neuer, again after energetic work from Müller.
Ribery’s next shot skidded wide of the target, but the biggest chance of the lot fell to Gomez on the half-hour, the striker somehow steering his point-blank effort past the post from Ribery’s inviting cross after a terrific FCB counter-attack. Neuer, a reported target for Bayern this coming summer, pulled out a tremendous diving save to deny Kroos, and then threw himself at Gomez’ feet with the striker advancing at pace.
The S04 keeper again performed heroics to thwart Kroos, before Schweinsteiger smacked a half-volley from a corner against the upright, and Ribery blasted into the side-netting from Müller’s lay-off as the first half drew to a goalless conclusion. Jörg Butt made his first real save of the evening straight after the restart, beating out a Rakitic belter from Huntelaar’s knock-down, but it was a rare foray forward from the home side as the visitors continued to dominate possession.
Neuer gathered a speculative Kroos effort at the second attempt, and Schweinsteiger shanked a shot well wide, but there was a shock for the double winners when Schalke took a truly surprise 58th-minute lead: Neuer’s huge punt found Raul, who twisted past the sliding Breno and rounded Butt. Tymoshchuk blocked the Spaniard’s attempt to finish, but the loose ball bobbled out to fellow-countryman Jurado, who netted with the aid of the post.
Raul suffered a bad cut in the melee before the goal and was replaced by Jefferson Farfan, the Peru winger soon causing Contento all kinds of trouble. The trouble deepened for FCB as a team on 67 minutes when Höwedes doubled the lead, poking into the net after his own header from a Per Kluge cross crashed off the post and trundled along the goal line.
Pranjic replaced the tiring Van Bommel for the last quarter of an hour, but Van Gaal’s men looked a shade forlorn as the Royal Blues closed ranks, and it was eerily symptomatic when Gomez crashed a decent opening high into the crowd.
Van Buyten came on for Schweinsteiger to add height to the attack for the closing stages, and although Gomez netted with a minute to play, the goal was marked off for offside – wrongly as it turned out, summing up a thoroughly miserable afternoon for Bayern and their fans, with Neuer capping a stunner of a display with a miracle save from Gomez in the last move of the match.
Live match report for fcbayern.de by Chris Hamley
MATCH STATS
Schalke 04 - Bayern Munich 2-0 (H-T: 0-0)
Schalke 04 Neuer - Uchida, Höwedes, Metzelder, Schmitz - Rakitic, Kluge, Edu (Papadopoulos 73) - Jurado (Pander 77) - Raul (Farfan 60), Huntelaar
Substitutes: Schober, Plestan, Jendrisek, Gavranovic
Bayern Munich Butt - Lahm, Breno, Tymoshchuk, Contento - Van Bommel (Pranjic 74), Kroos - Müller, Schweinsteiger (Van Buyten 84), Ribéry - Gomez
Substitutes: Kraft, Braafheid, Demichelis, Ottl, Altintop
Referee: Gagelmann (Bremen)
Spectators 61.673 (capacity)
Goals: 1-0 Jurado (58), 2-0 Höwedes (67)
Yellow Cards: - / Kroos
Credit: FC Bayern Munich (www.fcbayern.t-com.de)
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