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The VfB were the more active team, Schalke you noticed the long phase of the lack of victory
Photo: Guido Kirchner / dpa
On January 17th of this year Schalke 04 won 2-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
It was the start of the second half of the previous season, and Schalke was fifth after that.
After that, Schalke tried 22 times to win again, 22 times in vain.
Against the newly promoted VfB Stuttgart, the Royal Blues did not get beyond a 1-1 on Friday.
More than nine months without a Bundesliga win.
Malick Thiack gave Schalke a 1-0 lead, Nicolas Gonzales equalized after the break with a hand penalty (56th minute). Schalke now remains penultimate with two points, while VfB initially holds fourth place with the draw.
The Schalke team had been able to dream of their first success of the season, at least for a time: Thiaw scored the important leading goal after half an hour when he headed a free-kick cross to make it 1-0.
Until then, however, the Stuttgart team was clearly the more mature team.
The climber combined himself again and again intelligently in the Gelsenkirchen penalty area - but ultimately without success.
The uncertainty from the past few months was noticeable at the beginning of the Schalke crowd.
It was the Stuttgart themselves who brought the Schalke into the game.
VfB defender Marc Oliver Kempf committed an unnecessary foul in front of his own penalty area in a completely harmless situation for VfB.
The hosts used the free kick to make it 1-0, Thiaw had stolen the back of the Stuttgart defense and headed a freestanding.
It stayed that way until the break.
After the change, the guests tried to increase the pressure, but initially got stuck in the Schalke cover.
The hosts on their part were now able to free themselves from their grip more often and launched their own offensive actions.
Real opportunities were now rare on both sides.
The compensation of the VfB did not arise from a compelling situation.
After a cross into the penalty area, the ball jumped Schalke defender Salif Sané on the arm, hand penalty was the only logical decision.
Gonzales, who had just been substituted, made a cool 1: 1.
After that, the Schalke team hardly made any progress, the guests were clearly more dominant again, but no goal was scored.
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