Schalke crowned 2021/22 Bundesliga 2 champions
Schalke are winners of the 2021/22 Bundesliga 2 after recording a final-day win away to Nuremberg.
Schalke were already guaranteed a top-two finish and a place in next season's Bundesliga, but they needed a win to secure the title. A stunning strike from Rodrigo Zalazar - a lob from inside his own half - put Schalke in front before league top-scorer Simon Terodde sealed the deal just minutes after Lukas Schleimer's late equaliser.
It ensured Schalke finished two points clear of runners-up Werder Bremen, who also bounced back to the Bundesliga at the first attempt.
Schalke recorded 20 wins across their 34 league games, whilst scoring a league high 72 goals and conceding 44.
They were fourth in the table at the halfway stage in the season, but had slipped to sixth - six points adrift of the promotion places - when assistant coach Mike Büskens was placed in interim charge following the dismissal of Dimitrios Grammozis with nine games remaining.
Die Knappen won eight of them, only losing to Bremen on Matchday 31. After getting the better of Sandhausen a week later, they came from behind to beat St. Pauli 3-2 on the penultimate weekend to make sure of their promotion, before clinching the title in Nuremberg. It is the third time the seven-time German champions have won Bundesliga 2.
Terodde fuelled Schalke's title-winning exploits with a league-leading 30 goals to claim the top scorer's cannon for the fourth time. The German second tier's all-time record marksman also took the prize in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2018/19 - the latter two occasions as a Bundesliga 2 winner with VfB Stuttgart and Cologne respectively.
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