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Schalke maintain bragging rights after demolition derby
Saturday 27 February 2010
 SCHALKE 2
Höwedes 66 Rakitic 83
 DORTMUND 1
Sahin (pen) 46
Ivan Rakitic ensured Schalke 04 continued their dominance over arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund on Friday night as his 83rd-minute wonder strike was the difference between the two teams. Before the game, Dortmund had only won twice in the previous 22 meetings between the two sides, who contest arguably the fiercest rivalry in German football. And that barren spell for the Schwarzgelben was not to be halted last night in what turned out to be a typically bruising affair.
Dortmund Coach Jürgen Klopp was adamant his side was not going to succumb to a strong Schalke outfit by taking the game to the Königsblauen: "I don't intend to go to Schalke to show how football should be played, but to get a result. It is not our job to provide a spectacle." A rather dour first half in which both sides were overcautious and cagey proved that Klopp was not telling fibs and that his opposite number, Felix Magath, was also either not overly keen on taking the game to the opposition. Or, as was more likely the case in Megath’s instance, he was all too aware of Dortmund's venomous sting on the counter-attack. If anything, Dortmund shaded the first period as they looked comfortable in the tactics they were employing - working hard to get 10 men behind the ball and frustrate their bitter rivals when they had possession, but storm forward at pace and get players up the field sharply when they had the ball themselves. Schalke were simply too passive during the first 45 minutes and one might have thought they would have started the game with more thrust.
Magath might well have been regretting his team did not do more in the first period when, 28 seconds into the second, Rakitic clumsily trod on Nelson Valdez's ankle in the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Nuri Sahin converted superbly and the Dortmund faithful suddenly had hopes of a first win in Schalke's Gelsenkirchen home since May 14, 2005. But that was the turning point in the game, for thereafter it was Schalke who came to life and started to dominate proceedings. Both sides began to forget their inhibitions that were so visible in the first half and shoves, pushes, barges and hefty challenges took over an increasingly fractious derby encounter. Despite that ugliness, it was 21-year-old Croatian international Rakitic who supplied the genuine spark of beauty with his late winner, a sublime 20-yard strike that flew into the top corner, sending the Schalke fans into raptures and making sure the local boasting opportunities continue for another season.
Rakitic's goal also meant this was Magath's 200th win as a Bundesliga Coach, and he can celebrate this milestone knowing his side is now just a single point off top spot behind Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. The two sides at the top both have a game in hand on Schalke of course, with the rest of this weekend's Bundesliga programme to come, but this result certainly gives them something to think about with the Knappen firmly on their heels. As for Dortmund, their ambitions of achieving Champions League football next season are slowly slipping away having now lost four of their last five games.
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