The vast majority of the audience was gone when the royal blue horror came to an end.

Yussuf Poulsen scored in the 89th minute to make it 6-1 for RB Leipzig and coach Thomas Reis, the coach of the hopelessly inferior FC Schalke said a little later: "I can only apologize to the audience."

The Gelsenkirchen team played like a team that isn't competitive at this level and it might actually be best to heed Michael Frey's recommendation.

"We have to forget this game immediately," recommended the striker who switched to Revier from Royal Antwerp last week and was one of the few bright spots of the evening.

But that won't be that easy, because it wasn't a run-of-the-mill defeat of a relegation contender against a top team.

It was the dismantling of a helpless man.

FC Schalke were not only 2-0 down after goals by André Silva (7th) and Benjamin Henrichs (15th), it was even worse that the goals were conceded with a very clear message.

It was a goal that almost inevitably led all spectators to a painful realization: Schalke may have made some footballing progress and a decent game in Frankfurt over the past few weeks, but they are probably immature and unstable in the new year.

Defensive failure of an entire team

Before the 0:1, a long shot from their own half was enough to put Silva and Timo Werner in a two-on-two situation with Schalke central defenders Maya Yoshida and Henning Matriciani.

The two were easy victims for the not only superior in football, but also much faster Leipzig, who had no trouble using their advantages to lead.

And before the 0:2, a simple change of game tore up the entire left Schalke defense, because nobody felt responsible for the huge spaces on the wing.

The audience in the Bundesliga rarely sees such a dramatic defensive failure of an entire team.

"If you don't accept any duels in the first half and let your opponents run, you have no place in the Bundesliga," said Reis.

After this shock, there was nothing left of the tender self-confidence that Schalke had gained during the long winter break and with the decent performance last Saturday at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Silva (44th) and Timo Werner (45th + 2) finally decided the game, at halftime many spectators whistled.

After all, Frey indicated in two or three situations that he could be of help.

"Now we'll give everything for the fans again" was the goal the team had at half-time, reported the attacker after the worst 45 minutes of the season.

And indeed, a few minutes of reconciliation followed.

The overwhelmed Jere Uronen and Jordan Larsson were replaced by Dominick Drexler and Andreas Ivan, and when Soichiro Kozuki, signed from 1. FC Düren from the Oberliga, scored a nice goal to make it 4-1 (56th), a faint hope germinated.

The Revierklub even had a number of opportunities to further reduce the gap.

Dani Olmo's 1:5 (81st) made it clear to even the boldest optimists that no miracle would happen that evening.

And Poulsen's 1:6 hardly anyone felt, tens of thousands were already on their way home.

Schalke 04 have now lost ten of the last eleven Bundesliga games and the team looks so unfinished that staying in the league is hard to imagine, not only because of the meager nine points.

The only consolation is that only half of the season is over and the new football year brought the bottom of the table two particularly strong opponents in Leipzig and Frankfurt.

Maybe that's why the Leipzig coach Marco Rose said at the end of the evening without any irony to his sad colleague Reis: "I think there's still a lot to do with the spectators here behind you." Reis didn't seem like it was he agrees.