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Unions Christopher Trimmel and Schalke's Benito Raman faced each other in a fighting game
Photo: FREDERIC SCHEIDEMANN / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Schalke 04 and Union Berlin split 1: 1 (0: 0) in the Bundesliga.
Marvin Friedrich had put Union in the lead (55th minute), Gonçalo Paciência equalized for the Gelsenkirchen team (69th).
Due to the draw, Schalke left the last place in the table and jumped past Mainz 05 to 17th place.
After the fourth match day, Union is in tenth place in the midfield of the table.
From the very beginning, an unattractive game with few opportunities developed in Gelsenkirchen: Schalke offered the Berliners little room for their typical counterattack, but at the same time did little for their own offensive.
Manuel Baum trusted in his second game as Schalke head coach a nominally more aggressive line-up than last: Instead of a chain of five, the Gelsenkirchen team competed in a 4-3-3.
In the storm, Baum even exchanged the entire attack series, Benito Raman, Vedad Ibisevic and ex-Unioner Steven Skrzybski stormed for Paciência and the injured Mark Uth.
Initially, however, the trio was hardly staged.
Union had the better chances: First Grischa Prömel tested Schalke's goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow with a fall (22nd), then Rönnow had to parry against a sharp shot by Robert Andrich, who had pulled off after a corner from 18 meters (23rd).
Union comes out of the break well - Schalke improved in the final phase
Even after the break, the guests had better opportunities: five meters from the Schalke goal, a defensive action by Omar Mascarell Unions fell at Christopher Lenz's feet, whose harmless conclusion Rönnow was able to hold onto without any problems (47th).
A little later Union took the lead: After a corner blocked, Christopher Trimmel brought the ball back into the middle.
Friedrich, who played for Schalke from 2011 to 2016, prevailed in the header duel against Matija Nastasic and caught Rönnow on the wrong foot (55th).
Then Schalke became more active for the first time: Union goalkeeper Andreas Luthe steered a volley from Skrzybski to the top of the crossbar (69th).
The next corner headed the substitute Paciência at the near post into the goal (69.).
Amine Harit, who was also substituted on, subsequently tried to provide the impetus, but alone was not enough to launch a real final offensive: Opportunities only arose through standards that the Union could defend without any problems.
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