Schalke end winless streak away to Bremen
Bremen - FC Schalke 04 earned their first victory of the season on Matchday 5 thanks to a 3-0 win away to SV Werder Bremen.
Bremen dominant
Second-half goals from Max Meyer, Roman Neustädter and Tranquillo Barnetta helped the clinical visitors to a hard-fought win at the Weserstadion.
Hoping to bounce back from last week’s 4-2 defeat away to FC Augsburg, Bremen started the game confidently, bossing the opening exchanges against a deep-lying visiting side. Clear-cut goalscoring chances largely proved extremely difficult to come by in the first half, however.
Davie Selke might have given the home side the lead early on after skipping past Kaan Ayhan, but he fired wide ten minutes in. Fin Bartels then did well to release Eljero Elia on the half-hour mark, although the Dutch winger failed to beat Ralf Fährmann in a one-on-one situation. Dennis Aogo missed the guests’ first real chance shortly afterwards, firing wide from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s cross.
Meyer breaks the deadlock
Those opportunities aside, defences were by and large on top before the break, but Jens Keller’s men adopted a more adventurous approach after the restart, and their attacking intent soon paid dividends when Meyer's squeezed home a left-footed shot after a fine solo run in the 48th minute.
Things went from bad to worse for Bremen only three minutes later when Neustädter rose to meet Christian Fuchs’ pinpoint corner, the midfielder giving Raphael Wolf in the Werder goal no chance with a firm header from ten yards.
Schalke clinical
The home side weren’t going to give in, however, upping the pressure as the game progressed and frequently looking like pulling a goal back. Assani Lukimya’s header flew just past the left post and shortly after Santiago Garcia nodded another effort over.
With the hosts throwing bodies forward in search of a way back into the game, though, more space began to open up for Schalke, and a third goal killed the encounter as a contest. Substitute Barnetta made sure of the three points for the Gelsenkirchen side, rounding Wolf on a counter-attack to clinch a first victory of the season for the Royal Blues.
Line-ups and statistics
