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Stuttgart (AP) - Amid renewed unrest, the relegation of FC Schalke 04 from the Bundesliga is getting closer and closer.
A few hours after the denial of an alleged player revolt against coach Christian Gross, the former Champions League permanent guest at VfB Stuttgart lost 1: 5 (1: 3).
After the goals conceded by Wataru Endo (10th minute / 26th), Sasa Kalajdzic (34th), Philipp Klement (88th) and Daniel Didavi (90th + 2), hopes for a miracle to stay in the class dwindle even more.
Negligent defense in set pieces led to the next defeat, the goal of captain Sead Kolasinac (40th) was too little.
Nabil Bentaleb missed with a missed penalty (72nd) to bring Schalke to 2: 3 and to give hope for a point.
It was already clear before the kick-off that there would be no rest.
A club spokesman vehemently rejected media reports that Schalke leaders are said to have demanded a new coach change.
The Swiss big is already the fourth Schalke coach this season - but there are no signs of improvement, even if the guests resisted in the second half.
The knocked-down bottom of the table, however, is again eight games without a success.
VfB, itself burdened with a power struggle and a data affair, can, however, even squint at the Europa League places and increasingly plan for another season in the first division.
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The guests were different: Schalke's team manager Sascha Riether saw himself being disturbed in preparation for the game.
"There is talk of revolution, and there was no revolution at all," said the licensed player boss at Sky.
Sport1, the Funke media group and Sky reported that players should have complained about Gross’s work and asked for Jochen Schneider to be replaced.
But Schneider refused to do so.
With his arms crossed from his coaching zone, the former VfB coach Gross saw Amine Harit miss the first big chance for his team, which was badly damaged by injuries (5th).
But then the 16th defeat of the season took its course.
The first Bundesliga goals of the Japanese Endo fit into the picture of the Schalke season.
Completely free, the defensive midfielder took advantage of the guests' blatant standard weakness after a corner from the right side of the form-strong Borna Sosa.
In the 2-0 win, captain Gonzalo Castro took the corner kick from the left, the ball slipped through to Endo, again it was uncovered - and left substitute goalkeeper Michael Langer no chance.
Video evidence was used to check whether there was an offside position, but the hit counted.
And VfB even increased its dominance in the meantime: Striker Kalajdzic used his headball strength and his understanding with flanker Sosa - again a corner was the starting point.
Even clearer guidance would have been possible.
In the meantime, the Stuttgart had complained that there was no penalty when Silas Wamangituka fell on the goal line.
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Kolasinac made sure that Schalke didn't have to go into the dressing room completely hopeless.
And the guests tried hard to get the next goal in the second half.
Suat Serdar failed on VfB keeper Kobel (67th) - as did the substitute Bentaleb with his unplaced penalty.
When Endo and Kempf brought down Harit, Schalke had the chance to make it exciting, but they also missed the second penalty in this Bundesliga season.
Kobel also had to save against Alessandro Schöpf (82nd) before Klement and Didavi made everything clear.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210227-99-620110 / 2
VfB Stuttgart squad
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Information about the game on Bundesliga.de
Numbers for the game on the VfB homepage
Squad of FC Schalke 04