Schalke win first pre-season friendly 8-0 | OneFootball

FC Schalke 04 defeated PSV Wesel-Lackhausen 8-0 in their first friendly ahead of the 2021/22 season. Simon Terrode scored a first-half hat-trick, while Danny Latza netted the first goal of the new campaign.

Head coach Dimitrios Grammozis opted to go with a 3-5-2 formation, selecting all six summer signings (Marcin Kaminski, Thomas Ouwejan, Reinhold Ranftl, Victor Pálsson, Danny Latza and Simon Terodde) in the starting XI. The rest of the team was made up of Ralf Fährmann, Salif Sané, Malick Thiaw, Can Bozdogan and Benito Raman. Moroccan duo Amine Harit and Nassim Boujellab missed out with illness, while Mehmet Can Aydin and Matija Nastasic were given a rest. Markus Schubert was also unavailable. The goalkeeper suffered a minor injury in training and had to have stitches on his lower arm.

Benito Raman had the first chance of the game, just clearing the bar from 25 yards after less than two minutes. Schalke, as expected, had more of the ball and Wesel sat back primarily aiming not to concede.

The first goal of the season came after around a quarter of an hour. Can Bozdogan’s cross from the left wasn’t cleared and it landed to Danny Latza, who hammered it into the corner on his first game for S04 in a decade (16’).

Three minutes later, Reinhold Ranftl was denied by goalkeeper Sebastian Kaiser, as was Latza from the rebound. Benito Raman was also kept out shortly afterwards (19’).

Three new signings were involved in Schalke’s second goal. Danny Latza played it to Ranftl on the right wing and his cross was headed in by Simon Terodde (26’). Two minutes later, Latza fed Benito Raman and he struck it past the onrushing keeper (29’).

The friendly continued to be dominated by the Royal Blues. Simon Terodde grabbed his second goal in the 36th minute, bringing down a cross from Thomas Ouwejan on his chest and then converting from close range. He then had his first hat-trick in Schalke colours. This goal was another header from another Ouwejan cross! After Bozdogan’s narrow miss in the 42nd minute, the first half ended 5-0 to Schalke.

Dimitrios Grammozis made 10 changes for the start of the second half, with only Reinhold Ranftl remaining on the pitch. The first goalscorer of the second period was Hamza Mendyl. Initially Kaiser parried a Rabbi Matondo shot wide, before Mendyl headed in Levent Mercan’s corner (53’). After this, Omar Mascarell had a header cleared off the line (56’).

The second 45 minutes were very much like the first, with Schalke enjoying the ball against the lower league opposition. Rabbi Matondo narrowly missed the far post after 66 minutes, whilst Florian Flick tested out Kaiser with a long-range strike a minute later.

The best chance for a consolation goal came in the 68th minute. After a long ball over the defence, Florian Karwath tried to loop a header over Michael Langer. He, however, got back in time to save the shot. At the other end, Ahmed Kutucu added a seventh from a Ranftl cross (70’).

The final goal of the evening was scored by Malick Thiaw. The defender rose highest to net yet another header from another Mercan corner (87’).

Schalke’s second pre-season friendly will take place on Sunday (27/6) against Sportfreunde Hamborn 07 at 15:00 CEST, again at the Parkstadion.