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Gelsenkirchen (dpa) - New players, old problems - even the debut of the former soccer world champion Shkodran Mustafi did not give FC Schalke the hoped-for turnaround.
In the 0: 3 (0: 1) against RB Leipzig, the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga suffered another setback in the fight to remain in the class.
After the 14th defeat of the season, the Revierclub remains in an almost hopeless position with a lush nine points behind the relegation place.
In the empty Veltins Arena, the Leipzig scorers Nordi Mukiele (45th + 3), Marcel Sabitzer (73rd) and Willi Orban (87th) sealed the deserved defeat of the Royal Blues, who are making too little progress despite their four winter transfers.
The guests, on the other hand, consolidated their second place and kept the seven-point deficit on front-runner FC Bayern.
How big the royal blue need is, revealed the measure of coach Christian Gross to order defender Mustafi even without training with his new team in the starting line-up.
The quarantine of the Arsenal FC access was only lifted by the health department in Gelsenkirchen the morning before the game.
"We do not have much time.
We need something countable.
I decided on this measure and I am convinced that it is good for the team, ”said Gross before the game at Sky.
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The reinforcement in the Schalke central defense was also urgently needed.
Because the Leipziger took over the direction from the beginning and pushed the Schalke into their own half.
Goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann had to fend off a powerful shot by Dani Olmo from ten meters in the 10th minute.
But Mustafi, as an eager two-man fighter, initially contributed to the fact that the Schalke defense withstood the pressure at least for the first half hour.
The great effort to prevent the fast passing game of the guests, took the Schalke however any offensive urge.
Peter Gulacsi remained unemployed for a long time before Mark Uth forced the RB keeper to parry with a shot from 20 meters.
The fact that Uth had to be replaced with an injury a little later weakened the attacking game of Schalke.
There was also another setback shortly before the break.
After a corner from Christopher Nkunku, Mukiele prevailed in a header duel against Mustafi and scored the 300th Bundesliga goal for Leipzig from six meters.
The 20th goal against the Schalke after a standard gave the Schalke little courage for the second half.
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Accordingly, they appeared cautious after the restart.
The clearly better team were the Leipzig team, but they missed several opportunities to make an early preliminary decision.
Alexander Sörloth (47th) and Nkunku (51st) failed because of the ferryman.
In the end, however, the guests were rewarded for their strong second half.
After a pass from Angelino, Sabitzer increased to 2-0 with a low shot from 15 meters.
Orban's header three minutes before the end rounded off the sovereign performance.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210206-99-330192 / 2