FC Schalke traveled to Bayer Leverkusen with third place in the balance, but the scales shifted away from Die Knappen. Here are the player ratings for the match.
FC Schalke had their work cut out for them going into Bayer Leverkusen, and that task became a bit bigger with the early news that Matija Nastasic had suffered an injury, ruling him out to compile on the long-term injuries to Salif Sane and Benjamin Stambouli.
Yet again, the defensive fate was dependent on the 19-year-old phenom, Ozan Kabak. With some help from Weston McKennie, of course.
The match started balanced, with both sides commanding possession and attacking threats. But it would be Leverkusen that broke the nil-nil first, heading home on their first corner of the match in the 15th minute thanks largely to Alexander Nubel whiffing on his attempted punch.
Leverkusen were flying high after that, nearly getting another in the 17th that had to be parried by Nubel and seemingly another in the 19th before it was ruled out for offside. It was clear who the better team were early on, and Schalke needed to answer.
That answer seemed to come in the 49th when a fantastic team move culminated in Benito Raman slotting home, only for VAR to conclude that he was half a yard offside. But the momentum began to shift from that moment, with Schalke looking the more dangerous side. They continued to look much the same throughout the course of a goalless second half.
Things got testy in the 80th when Leverkusen went up 2-0, only for Schalke to score their first mere moments later. Despite the clear advantage, Schalke dropped the points in this one in a match they certainly deserved better from.
Here are the player ratings.