Schalke Matchday 23: @ Darmstadt

Schalke travel to take on Darmstadt, in their first meeting in September, Darmstadt were victorious with a 5-3 win.

Schalke missing alot of key players for today's match, with Top goal scorer Sylla out for a long while with Højlund, add Hamache to the list as he is now out for the rest of the season with a Achilles tendon injury. Also missing for today's match is captain Karaman with illness, Youngster Taylan Bulut who just signed his extension with Schalke, he is out with a thigh injury, Mohr is also out with sickness today.

With the depleted lineup the whistle goes and the match starts.

Both teams are wearing special kits with a message to vote as the elections in Germany are taking place today (Sunday).

Darmstadt waste no time and in the 3rd minute Correrdor brings the ball forward and passes the ball to Isac Lidberg and from the edge of the boxes unleashes a wicked curler that goes top corner, absolutely nothing Schalke keeper Heekeren could do to stop that from going in.

DARMSTADT 1 - SCHALKE 0

Darmstadt are not done yet, with their fantastic high energy start they head back down to the Schalke box and a great through ball is delivered to Lidberg who gets by Kaminski and he simply chips the ball over a rushing Heekeren, and at the 5th minute mark Darmstadt are now up by two goals.

DARMSTADT 2 - SCHALKE 0

Frustrating for Scahlke and it is shown by Ayman Barkok, the winter signing for Schalke in his first start is shown a yellow card at the 11th minute with a foul on the Darmstadt player.

Darmstadt continues to attack and at the 22nd minute another good play but Darmstadt hits the post and the ball makes it out of the Schalke zone.

Barkok commits another foul but this is simply a free kick for Darmstadt, Schalke playing on the edge to not go a man down.

HALF TIME:

DARMSTADT 2 - SCHALKE 0

Schalke lucky to be only down by two goals to start the 2nd half.

Schalke also make a change and take out Barkok and bring in Grüger.

Schalke continue the second half like the first, lots of possession, but extremely poor passing and no real chances being created in front of goal, the amount of bad passes, or passes not even reaching the other players is brutal, Incredible Darmstadt are not able to capitalize more on the amount of chances Schalke are gifting them.

Grüger is brought in due to Barkok on a yellow card and in the 53rd minute Grüger is shown a yellow, Schalke back in the same position they had with Barkok.

Tempers are starting to flair and now and waiting on a Darmstadt corner kick alot of pushing and elbowing and Schallenberg and Riedel are shown yellows.

Antwi-Adjei comes into the match and within minutes of being on the pitch receives a yellow card at the 67th minute.

Now what Schalke feared with Barkok has happened to Grüger, he his shown his second yellow card and gets the red card at the 77th minute and Schalke are down to 10-men.

Schalke are very fortunate to have only lost this match by 2 goals, this should have been at least a higher number of goals against defeat. The only thing Schalke can take from this match is this starting eleven should not be started again together.

Darmstadt roll over Schalke and with today's win break their six match winless streak.

They are also able to jump over Schalke in the table and go one point higher in the standings, Schalke drop from 11th in the table back down to 13th and now 6 pts only clear of the relegation zone.

Schalke next have a Friday match up against Münster at home in 4 days, Münster are only 4 pts away from catching Schalke in the standings.

A big relegation fight this Friday.