If you had looked at the past 5 games of these two sides coming into this game then you would’ve seen they’re completely opposite, Schalke won against VfL Wolfsburg before losing to Chelsea and have won their last 3 games whilst Köln lost SC Freiburg, beat 1899 Hoffenheim, and have lost their last 3. Schalke were clear favourites for this game especially after securing qualification for the Champions League knockout stages during the week.
Despite being somewhat of a doubt coming into this game Klaas Jan Huntelaar made the starting line up with the only change from the Maribor game being Max Meyer being brought in for the injured Marco Höger. Köln coach Peter Stöger also made one change with Matthias Lehmann coming in for Miso Brečko following their home defeat against high-flying FC Augsburg.
In spite of the fact that the opening exchanges were extremely exciting there were no outstanding efforts for either side, a barren spell broken only by a long ball from Roman Neustädter that Atsuto Uchida chested down for Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting but the Cameroonian attacker fired over on the spin.
Max Meyer then had an even better chance for Di Matteo’s side as an Uchida cross found Choupo-Moting on the corner of the box and he headed it towards Meyer who beat one defender before having his shot blocked by another. Tranquillo Barnetta also put his effort wide after a fizzing ball in from Christian Fuchs on the left wing. This 10-minute glut of chances turned out to be the last action of the half as neither side were able to break down the opposition defence.
Köln made the perfect start to the 2nd half by taking the lead in the 46th minute through top scorer Anthony Ujah. A long ball down the right hand side appeared to have been intercepted by Fuchs but when the Austrian stretched for the ball he couldn’t control it causing the ball to squirm away. Yannick Gerhardt ran onto the ball and found an unmarked Ujah inside the box and the Nigerian finished coolly with a first time finish slotted just inside the near post.
Ujah nearly helped Köln score a second in the 53rd minute after he received the ball in his own half before setting Dusan Švento clear behind a ridiculously high Schalke defensive line. Unfortunately for Stöger’s side the Slovakian couldn’t curl his effort around the onrushing Ralf Fährmann who did well in the 1-on-1 situation.
10 minutes later the Billy Goats doubled their lead courtesy of a penalty won by Pawe Olkowski. Marcel Risse had the ball on the right hand side and fed Olkowski inside the box just ahead of Benedict Höwedes who gave the Pole a slight tug on the shoulder and Olkowski went down rather theatrically allowing referee Dr. Delix Brych to award the penalty. Lehmann stepped up and fired home into the top left corner of the goal sending Fährmann the wrong way.
Ujah was much more of a threat in the 2nd half and he nearly added his second goal of the game when he produced a mazy run from out to in beating multiple defenders before slightly overrunning the ball forcing him to shoot on the stretch and Fährmann was able to block his effort. After Ujah’s effort Schalke threw everything at the resolute Köln defence but they couldn’t create any clear cut chances except for their solitary goal that came in the 84th minute to give them hope towards the end.
It was Leroy Sané who grabbed his first goal of the season for Schalke after a superb searching cross from Uchida found Sané in the box and he headed the ball home from close range. Repeated balls forward followed but they always seemed to be stopped either by great defending or because the Schalke attackers gave away unnecessary costless kicks allowing Köln to relieve the pressure and see out the game to pick up their first win in 4 games.