FC Schalke vs Fortuna Dusseldorf player ratings: The Henning undoing

09 November 2019, North Rhine-Westphalia, Gelsenkirchen: Soccer: Bundesliga, FC Schalke 04 - Fortuna Düsseldorf, 11th matchday in the Veltins Arena. Schalke's Daniel Caligiuri (2nd from right) cheers with Amine Harit, Weston McKennie, Ozan Kabak and Suat Serdar (l-r) for his 1-0 goal. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the requirements of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga or the DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund, it is prohibited to use or have used photographs taken in the stadium and/or the match in the form of sequence images and/or video-like photo sequences. (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images)
09 November 2019, North Rhine-Westphalia, Gelsenkirchen: Soccer: Bundesliga, FC Schalke 04 - Fortuna Düsseldorf, 11th matchday in the Veltins Arena. Schalke's Daniel Caligiuri (2nd from right) cheers with Amine Harit, Weston McKennie, Ozan Kabak and Suat Serdar (l-r) for his 1-0 goal. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa - IMPORTANT NOTE: In accordance with the requirements of the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga or the DFB Deutscher Fußball-Bund, it is prohibited to use or have used photographs taken in the stadium and/or the match in the form of sequence images and/or video-like photo sequences. (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images) /
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FC Schalke welcomed Fortuna Dusseldorf to the Veltins hoping to establish some sort of dominion at home. Henning foiled that. Here are the player ratings.

FC Schalke (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images)
FC Schalke (Photo by Bernd Thissen/picture alliance via Getty Images) /

FC Schalke had a lot of navigating to do when it came to deploying the starting XI. They were started on the defensive end and rich on the attacking end, forcing David Wagner to make some tough decisions.

The toughest decision was probably in sitting both Guido Bugstaller and Mark Uth and going instead with Benito Raman against his old club.

It started out a cagey affair, with a lot of FC Schalke possession and not a lot of attacking umph. It was a slow build though, with more possession pushing gradually up towards the Dusseldorf end. The first real chance came in the 25th minute when Raman found himself in on goal twice within a minute of each other. The first was cleared off the line and the second, after tremendous build-up, was fired wayward of the top corner.

Related Story. 10 Best Players In FC Schalke HIstory. light

A mere eight minutes later, FC Schalke broke the deadlock. Daniel Caligiuri and Benito Raman combined on beautiful interplay, touching the ball back and forth, and when Raman pulled defenders away from center, Caligiuri hit the gap and Raman found him for the assist on a stellar finish from the venerable Italian.

That would round out the first half, very heavily bossed by FC Schalke with a few squibbles of hope from Dusseldorf.

Coming out in the second half, Fortuna Dusseldorf were on the front foot, but FC Schalke weathered it admirably and retained the lead and had two fantastic chances when Dusseldorf had two men down on the pitch. Amine Harit was denied by the cross bar and Alessandro Schopf was denied by Steffen.

The bad luck struck at the hour mark, when a bullet head from Adams struck Weston McKennie‘s hand from close range. After VAR, the penalty was given (fairly, it must be said), though the accompanying yellow card felt like overkill, as there was no intent.

The match really opened opened up from there. What was once a cagey match became a back and forth of who could score the last goal, and in the end, Schalke had to leave feeling disappointed, as they blew three leads, all to one man, the new boogeyman Rouwen Hennings.

Here are the player ratings.

Didn’t have much to do. Was tidy with claiming possession when it came to him. Helpless to stop the penalty, as keepers often are. Was stranded on the other two goals as well. Hennings is just a superhero all of a sudden and Nubel couldn’t do anything about it.. GK. FC Schalke. ALEXANDER NUBEL. 6.2