Breel Embolo helps give Schalke hope for future

Schalke made the biggest statement victory possible at Signal Iduna Park on Saturday, embarrassing Borussia Dortmund 4-2.

Currently sitting in 15th place in the Bundesliga table, Schalke can only imagine where they’d be this season if attacker Breel Embolo were able to appear in more than 12 games.

Since returning to Schalke in March, Embolo has scored four goals in eight Bundesliga games, and he’s been involved in five of the team’s 11 goals in that span.

Though Daniel Caliguiri, who remains Schalke’s leading scorer with seven goals, was the star of the show against Borussia Dortmund with two goals and an assist, Embolo’s performance struck the most important cord for Schalke fans.

In the team’s biggest game of the season, Embolo stepped up. He harried Dortmund’s defenders into mistakes, unceasingly getting into the heads of Julian Weigl and Abdou Diallo. Embolo was Schalke’s most dangerous player, scoring their lone goal from open play to seal the deal at 4-2. The goal was well-deserved, as it was a sublime finish from the edge of the box that left Weigl with egg on his face; it also came after Embolo had ran Dortmund’s defense ragged with his work rate.

Embolo said it best, too, “I swear on everything, this win is important.”

Schalke are still, technically, in a relegation battle, but this 4-2 win over Dortmund means more than just three points to the Royal Blues. It was a statement of intent and a way of building momentum. Massive changes will need to be made, but the players who stood out on Saturday — namely Caliguiri, Embolo and Salif Sane — showed that there are reasons for Schalke fans to hope for a rebound season in 2019-2020. At 22 years old, Embolo, who joined Schalke with plenty of fanfare as a 20 million Euro transfer, is easily Schalke’s brightest star and looks poised to become one of the Bundesliga’s best forwards next season.

Dortmund vs. Bayern is still a title race

Borussia Dortmund’s 5-0 loss to Bayern Munich earlier in April was embarrassing enough, but Lucien Favre’s side may have outdone themselves in front of their own fans against Schalke. It was a 4-2 loss that featured unimaginative passing from everyone besides Jadon Sancho, horrendous midfield play from Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney, and more question marks defensively. Dortmund’s performance was punctuated by two stupid red cards from Marco Reus and Marius Wolf, both of whom should have known better than to target Suat Serdar’s ankle from behind.

Questions will be asked of Favre and Dortmund, and tactical decisions like giving a Paco Alcacer, who has 17 goals this season, barely more than 1,000 minutes will be put under a microscope if Dortmund fail to win the league — even if nobody expected them to be this competitive in his first season.

However, Dortmund vs. Bayern is still very much a neck-and-neck title race, because Bayern failed to take care of business in their own derby game. No, they weren’t embarrassed or red-carded twice against Nurnberg, but they could have easily dropped all the points in what ended in a 1-1 draw.

Bayern’s lone goal was a bit fluky, but it was, once again, the result of magical play from Kingsley Coman and substitute Serge Gnabry. (Like Favre, Niko Kovac’s own failings will be poked and prodded some more, including his possible lack of faith in world-class talents Gnabry and James Rodriguez.) Worse yet, they escaped a penalty that clanged off the post in the dying minutes of the match, as cheap fouls nearly gave Dortmund a big reprieve.

As it stands, Bayern are still just two points clear of Dortmund, meaning one mistake could spell doom for the favorites. Though next week’s game against Hannover, the Bundesliga’s worst team, will be an easy win, all eyes will be on their final clashes against RB Leipzig and Eintract Frankfurt. In third place and in much better form than Dortmund, Leipzig are the toughest possible team for Bayern to face on matchday 33, and Frankfurt are also close to securing Champions League football in 2019-2020.

Frankfurt miss Haller

Frankfurt have their own issues, though, because the Europa League semifinalists are coming off of back-to-back draws against Hertha Berlin and Wolfsburg. They haven’t looked as dangerous without star striker Sebastien Haller. Ante Rebic and Luka Jovic scored a combined two goals in four Bundesliga games in April, so they must step up with massive games against Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern on matchdays 32 and 34, respectively. They cannot afford to play like they did in a goalless draw against Hertha this week.

Wolfsburg carve up Hoffenheim

While Hoffenheim remain ahead in the table in seventh place, Wolfsburg are just one point behind and knocking on the doors of European football. Hoffenheim imploded defensively after Oliver Baumann’s awful mistake gave Wolfsburg a 2-1 lead, and Wout Weghorst and Co. finished them off 4-1. Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric failed to take advantage of all the attention given to Ishak Belfodil, while Weghorst and Maximilian Arnold gave Wolfsburg a massive boost.

Key players in relegation battle

Stuttgart grabbed all three points against Borussia Monchengladbach, winning 1-0. Anastasios Donis was the goalscoring hero after a curled effort deflected off the post earlier, but Daniel Didavi looks just as crucial in Stuttgart’s fight out of 16th place. He is determined not to move down to the 2. Bundesliga and pressed Gladbach’s defenders throughout the match, looking dangerous in every facet. Didavi is a talented player, and while this has been a highly disappointing season for him and Donis, they have the class to help Stuttgart immensely in these final three games.

Meanwhile, Nurnberg were able to get a point thanks to Christian Mathenia’s excellence in goal. The keeper has been quietly solid throughout this season, but some of the saves he made against Bayern, including a pair of free-kick stops and a victory over Coman on a one-on-one break, were truly special.