Schalke 04 in front of a big crisis: Bitter defeat against Kaiserslautern!

Schalke 04 in front of a big crisis: Bitter defeat against Kaiserslautern!

On Sunday, April 29, 2025, FC Schalke 04 played against 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the fully occupied Fritz-Walter Stadium and had to take a painful 2-1 defeat. This was the first game under the new coach Torsten Lieberknecht for the home side who wanted to overcome their form crisis. The victory leads Kaiserslautern back to the promotion race of the 2nd Bundesliga, while Schalke continues to struggle with his problems.

The first half was shaped by the dominance of the hosts. Despite a committed appearance by the Schalke team, it was Daisuke Yokota who scored the first goal in the 35th minute after a cross from Kenny Prince Redondo. Schalke goalkeeper Justin Heekeren initially prevented worse, but was then powerless. In this phase, Heekeren showed outstanding reflexes, but the defensive coordination of the Schalke backline left a lot to be desired.

Schalak power in detail

The individual criticism of the Schalke players was consistently negative. Justin Heekeren received a grade of 3 for his parades, while the defenders such as Marcin Kaminski and Ron Schallenberg stand out with grades of 6 and 5.5 as the weakest players. Schallenberg could not prevent this 1-0 and was overwhelmed in many situations. Derry Murkin let himself be skipped at the first goal and should have been more defensive. Paul Seguin, the captain, and other players such as Taylan Bulut and Mehmet Aydin could not show their shape either and got notes between 3.5 and 6.

The Schalke offensive performance also brought little pleasant. Moussa Sylla equalized in the 61st minute before Ragnar Ache scored the repeated lead for Kaiserslautern in the 77th minute. Emil Höjlund, who was substituted at halftime, was able to bring a breath of fresh air into play, but missed several good chances.

promotion sample for Kaiserslautern

With this victory, Kaiserslautern not only won important three points, but also improved her position in the promotion race. The club is now only one point behind the relegation place and four points behind the direct promotion place. This is after a difficult phase in which they had only achieved a win from the previous five games. The team of coach Lieberknecht will go into the upcoming games with new optimism.

The statistics of the game also speak volumes. Kaiserslautern had an XGOALS number of 2.71 compared to 1.98 for Schalke. The fastest player on the field was Tomáš Kalas from Schalke, who achieved a top speed of 34.95 km/h. The Ache goal was particularly remarkable, which fell with a probability of only 7.8 percent.