Schalke 04's match against Bayer Leverkusen started at 3:30 p.m. local time on February 23, Zhang Yuan did not play, and Slomka adjusted the formation to 442, which is more balanced in attack and defense, and he needs to be careful at Leverkusen's home stadium.

Skibe lined up today is still their usual 442, with two midfielders at the back, Rolfes and Sarpe, Friedrich and Haguyi at centre-back, Myriad Vidal at left-back, Castro at right-back, Barnetta and Schneider in midfield, and Kiessling and veteran Barbarets in the attack.

On the Schalke 04 side, Slomka only adjusted Zhang Yuan alone, Kobiasvili retreated to the midfield to play left midfield, Ernst played right midfield, Jones and Rakitic in the middle, Schalke 04, the 442 is a parallel position, unlike Leverkusen, which sets up two midfielders.

A common style of play for teams in the Bundesliga is to make full use of the two wings, crosses, and high strikers to fight for the top, so many teams have strikers with excellent header ability, Bayer Leverkusen is like this, Schalke 04 is also played like this, Kiessling is about the same height as Kuranyi, and his header ability is very good.

Bayer Leverkusen have two midfielders not because they played in the Europa League in midweek and have to adopt a defensive strategy against their fierce rival Schalke 04, but because Skibe's tactical setup has always been like this, and their midfielders are not only tall, but also have good technical ability, and can also do a good job of organising and waiting for opportunities to get forward.

The referee blew the whistle, the two sides officially kicked off the game, both teams experienced European competition in midweek, it is impossible to say that physical fitness has no impact on them, in fact, both teams played very poorly, Leverkusen with the advantage of home has a certain advantage, but Schalke 04 frequently uses foul tactics, resulting in Leverkusen's offensive is difficult to work, and it is rare to reach Schalke 04's penalty area.

Zhang Yuando also looked drowsy on the bench, he is now thinking about Slomka's tactical arrangement, he thinks that Slomka has not expected it, this game has obviously strengthened the strength of the midfield, limited Leverkusen's two wings, and the pursuit of a decent draw may be the goal of the manager.

That's really what Slomka thinks, the bench is not thick enough, everyone's fitness is a problem, and it would be a good deal to get a point at Bayer Leverkusen's home stadium.

As a result, the first half of the game was spent in such an ugly way, Leverkusen had 54% possession, Schalke 04 reached 46%, everyone was half-hearted, Leverkusen only had 4 shots on goal, one was in the frame of the goal, and Schalke 04 actually did not shoot, but the fouls reached 20. Bayer Leverkusen also committed a lot of fouls, with 10 in the first half.

In the first half, Leverkusen fans frequently booed Schalke 04, of course, because of Schalke 04's frequent foul tactics.

At halftime, Slomka replaced Asamoah and went to Lowenkrantz, Asamoah and Zhang Yuan have a large range of activities in each game, and the physical consumption is also very large, for the next game, Slomka decided to replace it with a new force, Lowenkrantz did not have many opportunities to play in Schalke 04, Zhang Yuan's arrival compressed his chances of playing, and today he finally got a substitute opportunity, presumably he should be very hard, Slomka just wants him to work hard.

Leverkusen's side did not make any personnel adjustments for the time being, and the two sides changed sides in the second half, and the situation still did not get any better, but everyone restrained a little in fouls.

In the 63rd minute, Bayer Leverkusen finally made a substitution, Skibe replaced Barbarets and replaced him with the main striker Yekas, Babarets is 36 years old, and the half-time run is already very tired, although Yerkas played in the middle of the week, but it is also a good choice to impact the opponent's defense in the remaining 30 minutes, Yerkas is not bad in speed and technique, and can form a good complement to Kiessling in the forward line.

Playing at home, Skibe still wants to win this direct rival contest. Slomka made his second substitution in the 53rd minute, when Stenette replaced Rakitic, who was almost unable to hold on, so Slomka had to replace him before he played ten minutes in the second half.

Schalke 04 replaced the main core of the game, but Bayer Leverkusen replaced the main striker, which clearly wanted to take advantage of the goal into a goal.

The head coach thought very well, but the players on the field may not be able to execute the position, Zhang Yuan sat on the bench and saw that the situation on the field still did not change, Leverkusen did not have any decent chances at all, and added a few shots, although they were all within the goal frame, but for Neuer, there was no difficulty at all.

Then the game came to the 85th minute, Leverkusen's corner kick was cleared by Bolton, and the ball was snatched by Lowenkrantz in the front, but he also failed to control the ball and was cut off by Salpe, who passed directly to Schneider after cutting off, Schneider crossed from the right, and Friedrich, who had not had time to return to his own half, scored a wonderful long-range goal, which also helped Leverkusen take a 1-0 lead.

Slomka, who thought it would be a draw, collapsed completely, and Bayer Leverkusen celebrated the hard-earned goal wildly, with the fans in the stands cheering enthusiastically.

After the goal, Slomka replaced Kobiashvili with Altentop Jr., and he should play a three-striker strategy, wanting to play in the final minutes, using the rush to see if he can make the team's strikers take advantage of their opportunities.

However, when Skibe saw Slomka's fighting tactics, he immediately made personnel changes, replacing Schneider with Brak, who is a central defender, and he clearly intends to defend Schalke 04 in the last few minutes to ensure that the three points are in hand.

In the end, Bayer Leverkusen struggled to hold on to the victory, Schalke 04 unfortunately ushered in two consecutive defeats in the league, and Jones was sent off at the last minute.

Schalke 04 was not satisfied with the defeat, and even occasionally chanted "Slomka down" from the Schalke fans' phalanx after the game at the Bayer Arena.

Slomka, on the other hand, was unhappy with the poor performance of his substitutes. 'The players who came off the bench didn't help us in any way. "Lowenkrantz's misplaced pass led to the goal, while Stryt wasted a good chance to score," Slomka said. ”

Speaking to reporters, Manuel Neuer said: "I guess he wanted to cross, I tried everything but I couldn't touch the ball. ”

Manuel Neuer and Bayer Leverkusen's goalkeeper Adler are in competition, and both are on the radar of national team manager Loew, so he is naturally a little unacceptable to have such a shot into his goal.

Not only are the fans dissatisfied, but the last Slomka own goal incident has caused some fans and club management to be dissatisfied, in the Bundesliga next weekend Schalke 04 will welcome the peak showdown with Bayern Munich at home, and they will also play Porto away, which puts the club's management under huge pressure. 'It was a bad game and a bad result. Speaking after the game against Bayer Leverkusen, vice-president Schnusenberg said: "It's a very difficult situation right now, we could go on to lose to Bayern Munich and even if I'm optimistic I wouldn't say we could knock out Porto, but if we do that, it will be an opportunity for us to regain our confidence." "After spending €6 million on a couple of attacking players in the winter transfer, Schnusenberg is expecting better performances from the team." I don't know why Zhang Yuan didn't play in this game, his performance on the court has always been outstanding, and he is a very dangerous player! Next we need to change! Schnusenberg really didn't know why Zhang Yuan didn't play, he felt a little unhappy, you can't get a good forward knife, and several players who transferred during the winter break performed the best, and he went on to say that he would have a good talk with Slomka.

Zhang Yuan didn't care about the vice chairman's post-match talk, he felt that Slomka led the team to a good result, what else do you want? The strength of the team is probably like this, there are several teams in the Bundesliga that are very close in strength, the competition for Champions League qualification is extremely fierce, and no one wants to lose to their rivals, but Schalke 04 does lack a little luck.

After this round of games, Schalke 04 still has 35 points and ranks fifth, but the gap with Bayern Munich has widened to 9 points, the gap with Werder Bremen is 5 points, the gap with Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen is 3 points, and Karlsruhe behind him has 33 points, and Schalke 04 is only 2 points ahead.

On March 1st, that is, next Saturday, Schalke 04 will play at home against Bayern Munich, which is another vicious battle, Zhang Yuan believes that the recent schedule is really a pit for Schalke 04, all fighting with a group of competitors, and this time facing Bayern Munich.

There is no need to go into detail about the strength of the Bundesliga's squad Baba, mainly because their lineup is thick, and the personnel strength of the substitute squad is strong enough, gold medal scorer Miroslav? Klose moved to Bayern Munich and Italian striker Luca. Toney has formed a chilling forward combination, one is the Bundesliga Golden Boot and the other is the Serie A Golden Boot.

What's more, they also have a strong midfielder, the French player Frank. Franck Ribery is Bayern's midfielder with a quick knife attacker and good passing, and Bayern Munich's own academy player Bastian? Schweinsteiger is also a very good midfielder, with good organisation and passing skills.

On the cards, there is no doubt that Bayern Munich is much stronger, but this is not a reason for Schalke 04 to disarm, Schalke 04, who have lost two in a row, are in desperate need of a victory, even against the Bundesliga team they cannot back down.