Ondrej Duda at the double as slick Hertha Berlin make it two wins from two by beating Schalke
Hertha Berlin made it two victories from two and condemned Schalke to a second straight defeat by deservedly winning 2-0 at the Veltins Arena on Sunday evening, with midfielder Ondrej Duda scoring both goals.
Schalke 0-2 Hertha Berlin
Goals: 0-1 Duda (15'), 0-2 Duda (90')
Missed pen.: Caligiuri (12')
Sent off: Konoplyanka (90')
The Royal Blues came into the match looking to make amends for last weekend's 2-1 defeat Wolfsburg and they looked on course for a perfect start when a penalty was awarded for Marko Grujic's inexplicable hand-ball. Nabil Bentaleb scored from the spot against the Wolves but it was Daniel Caligiuri that stepped up and dragged his spot-kick wide of the left post. It proved a costly miss as Hertha stung the hosts by taking the lead barely a minute later, Duda finishing smartly from a Javairo Dilrosun pass.
Salomon Kalou missed a good chance to double the lead shortly afterwards, but Hertha's dominance over a subdued Schalke side continued after the break, with Duda and Valentino Lazaro outstanding on the counter-attack. Substitute Amine Harit offered some thrust for the hosts when he entered the fray and Rune Jarstein made two smart stops late on, before Yevhen Konoplyanka was sent off for a last man foul on the substitute Dennis Jastrzembski. Duda stepped up to crown a superb display with a stunning free-kick and ensure Hertha started a league season with two wins for the first time since 2016/17.
Match stats
- The result ended a run of ten straight home wins for Schalke in this fixture.Duda's goals were just his second and third in the Bundesliga. His first came against Bayern Munich back in October 2017.All three of Schalke’s goals so far this season have come from set-pieces (two Bentaleb penalties and Nastasic’s deflected effort in the DFB Cup).Guido Burgstaller - Schalke’s top scorer last season with 11 goals - has netted two in as many games for the Royal Blues against Hertha.Schalke have recorded more wins against Hertha since the turn of the millennium (20) than against any other club.Hertha lined up with the third-youngest team in the Bundesliga on Matchday 1 (24 years and five months). The average age of the team last season was the second oldest (26 years and eight months), behind Bayern Munich.
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Line-ups
Schalke: Fährmann (c) – Sane, Naldo, McKennie – Caligiuri, Rudy (Serdar 51'), Bentaleb, Baba (Harit 73') – Embolo (Burgstaller 57'), Uth – Konoplyanka
Unused substitutes: Nübel, Skrzybski, Teuchert, Schöpf
Absentees: Nastasic (suspended), Oczipka (hernia), Riether (knie), Stambouli (ankle)
Coach: Domenico Tedesco
Hertha: Jarstein – Stark, Rekik (Dilrosun 6') Torunarigha – Lazaro, Grujic, Duda, Meier – Kalou (Jastrzembski 90'), Ibisevic (c) (Lustenberger 67'), Mittelstädt
Unused substitutes: Kraft, Klünter, Köpke, Dárdai
Absentees: Darida (knee), Gersbeck (cruciate ligament), Leckie (collateral ligament), Pekarik (knee), Selke (collapsed lung)
Coach: Pal Dardai
Watch: Duda: "I practice free-kicks like that every day"
As it happened