An away win in Gelsenkirchen!
Pál Dárdai made two changes to the team that faced FC St. Pauli last Saturday. Jeremy Dudziak (foot injury) and Marten Winkler (illness) were replaced by Jonjoe Kenny and Deyovaisio Zeefuik.
Our hosts had the first big chance of the game after 25 minutes, when Kenan Karaman squared the ball for Dominick Drexler, but he didn’t manage to keep his shot down. Some 10 minutes later, Deyovaisio Zeefuik failed to capitalise on an error from the man between the sticks for Schalke (34’). Hertha broke the deadlock after 41 minutes, when Fabian Reese’s cross into the box was deflected and Smail Prevljak was the first to react, poking the ball into the back of the net.
Haris Tabakovic had his first chance of the game just after half-time, as Reese cut the ball back to him from the left flank. However, the striker failed to get a clean contact on the ball (47’). Fabian Reese then doubled Hertha’s lead, turning spectacularly and rifling his shot past the Schalke goalkeeper from a tight angle. Tjark Ernst then made a fantastic stop with his foot to deny Bryan Lasme and keep Hertha 2-0 up (62’).
Both sides hit the woodwork
Reese continued to cause trouble for Schalke’s defence; his lofted cross was met by Derry Scherhant, who nodded the ball onto the post and Florian Niederlecher’s effort on the rebound was blocked by Timo Baumgartl (73’). At the other end of the pitch, Derry John Murkin’s powerful strike from distance was denied by another top save from Ernst (74’). Simon Terodde’s shot from the edge of the box hit the crossbar (79’), but, only a minute later, Schalke got a goal back through Yusuf Kabadayi (80’). Jonjoe Kenny almost put the game to bed with a speculative effort from 30 yards out, which rattled the post (85’). Schalke had a man sent off with five minutes of normal time to play, but they still forced Tjark into another excellent save from Assan Ouédraogo (90’+1).
A jump in the table
Now with 12 points, our boys from Berlin have climbed up to ninth in the table. Next up for Hertha is an away fixture against 1. FC Nürnberg (22.10.23, 13:30 CEST).
Smail Prevljak: “We knew what we had to do here. Although we needed a bit of time to get into the game, we showed character and deserved the win. I don’t even know how the ball came to me for my goal, but I had a sixth sense that I should stick my leg out and thankfully that worked out well. I patiently waited for my chance and now I’m happy that I’m back fit and playing.”
FC Schalke 04: Heekeren – Matriciani, Baumgartl, Kamiński (C), Ouwejan (58’ Kabadayi) – Tempelmann (86’ Ouédraogo), Schallenberg (63’ Seguin) – Drexler (58’ Lasme), Karaman, Murkin – Polter (63’ Terodde)
Hertha BSC: Ernst – Kenny, Leistner (C), Kempf, Karbownik – Bouchalakis, M. Dárdai (70‘ Hussein) – Zeefuik (64’ Scherhant), Reese (81‘ Christensen) – Prevljak (70’ Niederlechner) – Tabaković
Goals: 0-1 Prevljak (41‘), 0-2 Reese (51‘), 1-2 Kabadayi (80‘)
Referee: Harm Osmers
Yellow cards: Kenny, Christensen
Red cards: Karaman
Attendance: 62,271 (sold out)