Dhe old masters FC Schalke 04 and 1. FC Nürnberg have used the mistakes of the competition and are attacking again in the promotion race of the second Bundesliga. Even without their new head coach Mike Büskens, who was infected with the corona virus, on the bench, Schalke reacted to the leave of absence from his predecessor Dimitrios Grammozis with a confident 3-0 (0-0) at bottom FC Ingolstadt.
The Bundesliga relegated team, who made a decisive mistake last weekend in the 3-4 win against Hansa Rostock for Grammozis, is now only four points behind SV Darmstadt 98, FC St. Pauli and SV Werder Bremen (48 points each) in fifth place ). The top trio had previously remained without a win on the 26th matchday. Hamburger SV (41), who did not play at the weekend due to the corona, is initially distanced as seventh in the table.
With 45 points now, Nuremberg is suddenly one point better than fourth in the table. The Franconians won 3-0 (1-0) at Hannover 96 and, like Schalke, decided the game late. In the third game of the day, Karlsruher SC and Jahn Regensburg drew 1-1 (0-1).
In Ingolstadt, the Royal Blues and Büskens representative Matthias Kreutzer only celebrated after the break after a disappointing first half. Substitute Rodrigo Zalazar (55th minute), Malick Thiaw (71st) and Dominick Drexler (81st), who was recently badly criticized, shot Schalke to a win for the first time in almost a month. Nuremberg were superior in Hanover for a long time, but initially only managed to score through Lukas Schleimer (26th) after a serious mistake in the build-up by Lower Saxony. The strong Tom Krauss (83rd) and Erik Schuranov (87th) made everything clear late.
The club and S04 benefited in particular from a setback for Bremen that was hardly considered possible. For coach Ole Werner, the 1-2 (0-1) win at FC Heidenheim on Saturday night was the first defeat in eleven games as a Werder coach. The Hanseatic League had previously lost in Kiel (1:2) on November 27th. As a result, Werder fell back to third place with a further 48 points and had to watch on Sunday as Nuremberg and Schalke shot up.
“Let’s keep going,” was how veteran Leonardo Bittencourt summed it up. Next Saturday (8:30 p.m.) the next top game against leaders Darmstadt with the same number of points awaits. The Hessians had already missed out on Friday against the relegation candidates SV Sandhausen (1: 1).
St. Pauli, in second place with 48 points, also missed a win in the 1-1 draw in Dresden on Saturday. So far it has been consistency that has brought Bremen back into the fight for promotion after a turbulent start to the season. A consistency that teams like Darmstadt, St. Pauli but also Nuremberg, Schalke or Hamburger SV lacked.