The international break has finished and the Bundesliga was back and we were in for a treat at the Veltins as Wolfsburg came to Schalke looking for seventh win in a row.
The deadlock was broken just under ten minutes in, Choupo Moting controlled the ball superbly from a diagonal pass from Marco Höger and slotted his shot left footed into the bottom corner. Following going a goal to the good, Wolfsburg put Schalke under pressure. After fifth teen minute a Ricardo Rodriguez through ball to Perišić who had aches of grass to run into, he came one on one with Fährmann he opted to pass to Olić but the Croatian Veteran couldn’t quite poke his boot at it.
However after twenty minutes, the pressure came to no avail as Choupo Moting doubled Schalke’s lead. Boateng won the ball at the second attempt following a header with Rodriguez; he threaded his teammate in who cleverly left the sliding Trasch for dead and poked home to shed some daylight for the home side. Just four minutes later, after a quarter of an hour, it was three for Schalke. Christian Fuchs costless kick looped went the whole way through the defence and Benaglio legs, bizarre goal but Schalke seemingly had the three points in the bag at this moment.
The three-goal deficit didn’t seem to affect Wolfsburg, as they pressed ever harder to get a goal back. Perišić whipped cross was met by Olić but he couldn’t direct it goal wards. A scramble in the Schalke box, the ball seeped out to the edge of the box to Guilavogui, his shot flew into the Nordkurve. There pressure finally paid off ten minutes from the break, De Bruyne’s pass cut open the Schalke defence, Perišić crossed hard and low with the help of Fährmann, Olić pulled the goal back.
At the break, Schalke went in 3-1 up following a fantastic spell of fifth teen minutes that brought Schalke three goals. However, some cause for concern for Schalke as Wolfsburg pressed excessively and were unlucky not to go in with two goals pulled back rather than one.
Wolfsburg started the second half as they finished the first, on the attack and putting Schalke’s defence under tremendous problems. Kevin Prince Boateng was penalised at the edge of the box. Perišić's curling costless kick just grazed the post on its way out for a goal kick. Before the hour mark, Wolfsburg thought they were closer to the unthinkable but Olić was judged offside following Perišić's cross.
Wolfsburg kept piling the pressure on Schalke, after a off pass following a quick short corner trickled to Portuguese international Vierinha let one fly from 40+ yards but it could only whistle past the post. On seventy-four minutes the gap appeared in Schalke’s defence following Höwedes heading coming off the back of Santana into Nicklas Bendtner’s path and he fired home through Fährmann legs, making the last fifth teen very tense for the Veltins crowd. Another speculative effort from Vierinha with ten minutes to play, a half volley from twenty five yards never troubling Fährmann who made a standard save diving to his right.
Amongst the heavy pressure Schalke had a half chance of there own Huntelaar’s header was at Benaglio who claimed the ball at the second attempt. Another chance for Schalke after eighty-four minutes, innovative reverse pass from Boateng set Huntelaar through on goal but Vierinha was there to beat to Dutchman to the ball. From the resulting corner, Huntelaar’s flick fell the Brazilian Santana at the back post but his volley was blocked.
Five minutes remaining and it was heart in mouth time for Schalke, De Bruyne brilliantly controlled and shot on his left foot but it bobbled along the six-yard box but there wasn’t a white shirt of Wolfsburg to finish off the superb move. Another speculative effort from Wolfsburg, this time from Rodriguez but it was a wasted opportunity and Fährmann breathed a sigh of relief as it sailed wide of the mark.
Into stoppage time, Schalke tried running down the clock as long as possible, Uchida was in acres of space at the back post his shot was straight at Benaglio who made the easy save. From that previous Schalke attack, Wolfsburg attacked, Rodriguez and Perišić bursting forward, Perišić crossed to Naldo whose header clipped the bar in the 92nd minute.
At the full time whistle, Schalke held on to win 3-2. Great fight back from the visitors but Di Matteo’s men held on to move up to sixth. Wolfsburg’s unbeaten run came to an end, however they stay second following Gladbach 1-3 home defeat to Frankfurt.