Eintracht started with Alexander Meier from the start, left defender Tzavellas was left out as he had suffered a flu in the week. Benny Koehler moved back to defense from midfield.
The first fifteen minutes were even and apart from an Ochs volley (4') without major events, both teams tried to get into the match without leaving the opponent too much space to get a fluent passing going. Then Schalke was slightly on top and it was once again Oka Nikolov who denied Schalke star Raul the first goal (18').
The Eagles got better and had their first big chance after Chris won the ball in midfield and Ochs' shot was just cleared for a corner. The game got better and better despite the lack of goals. Altintop and Russ had chances to score for Eintracht, as had Hoewedes and Huntelaar for Schalke, with Nikolov having another save from the durtchmen's shot. The 0-0 halftime score represented the happenings of the first half fair and square.
In the second half Eintracht developed a lot of pressure, probably also as Schalke was getting tired after having played a midweek Champions League match. Russ and Meier missed by a margin with headers, and after a great display down the right wing (Jung and Ochs were nearly unstoppable now) it was again Meier who forced Schalke and Germany keeper Neuer to get his hands at the end of his shot with a great save.
Altintop, Chris and Meier had further opportunities to score but it wasn't meant to be today. Despite a powerful and tremendous second half the Eagles did not add another win to their recent run of three in a row. Also due a very concentrated Eintracht defense the highly rated Schalke forwards Raul, Farfan and Huntelaar were hardly allowed any chances.
On Wednesday Eintracht will host Hamburger SV in the German cup (DFB-Pokal) and on Saturday the 30th of October they will travel to Hamburg to play away to St. Pauli (15.30h CET).
