Schalke 04: 5 most pivotal games of the 2019-2020 season so far

Schalke 04 vs. Borussia Dortmund, Oct. 26

A month after Amine Harit’s magical goal against Mainz 05, Schalke defended the VELTINS-Arena against arch rivals Borussia Dortmund. When the 2019-2020 Bundesliga season returns, the Royal Blues will have to face the Black and Yellows first thing back.

While both bitter rivals drew 0-0 in this game, the first Revierderby of the campaign was anything but boring. The Royal Blues tied, but they showed they could go toe-to-toe with the exciting Dortmund attack. Defensively, Schalke and Salif Sane absolutely took Jadon Sancho and BVB’s stars out of the game, while Rabbi Matondo was unlucky not to build on his goal-scoring performance against Leipzig with another big goal vs. the Black and Yellows.

Schalke 04 at FC Augsburg, Nov. 3

One week after the Revierderby, Schalke 04 were fatigued and coming off a tough DFB-Pokal win over Arminia Bielefeld, which can be summed up as the “Benito Raman game”.

The Augsburg matchup wasn’t easy either. After watching leader and star center back Benjamin Stambouli break his foot vs. Dortmund, Schalke lost an even more important center back in Salif Sane against Augsburg early in the match.

However, the Royal Blues eventually found their winning pairings at center back without Sane and Stambouli, and they overcame adversity against Augsburg for a big 3-2 win.

And once again, it was Amine Harit who was the matchwinner. He scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute to make sure none of the points would be shared with the upstarts.