Bundesliga
Eintracht Frankfurt loanee Goncalo Paciencia scored his first goal for Schalke to earn the Royal Blues their first point of the season in a hard-fought battle with Union Berlin.
Schalke 1-1 Union Berlin
Goals: 0-1 Friedrich (55'), 1-1 Paciencia (69')
In the second game of Manuel Baum's stewardship, Schalke looked a much-improved side. Can Bozdogan - who extended his contract with the club until 2024 before the game - had the first strike at goal, being blocked wide. Union worked their way into the game as well with Robert Andrich hitting two volleys from cleared corners at the edge of the Schalke box, the second of which forced an outstanding reflex save from Frederik Rönnow. The home side had clearly been working hard during the international break and produced a fantastic move which ended with a Benito Raman shot at goal, which was deflected wide by Marvin Friedrich. Marius Bülter almost got on the end of a Christopher Trimmel cross at the back post, but the scores remained level going into the break after a hard-fought first period.
Union starting the second half the better of the two sides and Christopher Lenz almost had them in front when Bülter's cross was cleared as far as him just four yards from goal, with Rönnow once again coming to the rescue. He could do nothing about Friedrich's header 10 minutes into the second half, however, as the centre-back was on the end of another Trimmel cross, this time to the near-post with Friedrich heading home in front of Matija Nastasic and past Rönnow. Paciencia came on to change up things in attack and made an immediate impact, heading home at the near post from an Omar Mascarell corner to level the scores with his first for goal the Royal Blues. Neither side was happy to take a point with both pushing for a winning goal late into the game, but both Schalke and Union had to settle for a point after a super battle on Sunday.
Watch: Paciencia: "We're a big club, we have to think big"
Schalke: Rönnow - Ludewig, Sane, Nastasic, Oczipka - Mascarell (c) - Skrzybski, Bentaleb, Bozdogan (Harit 61'), Raman (Schöpf 82') – Ibisevic (Paciencia 56‘)
Unused subs: Langer, Mendyl, Matondo, Kutucu, Stambouli, Thiaw
Out: Fährmann (groin), Kabak (suspended), Serdar (thigh), Uth (muscular)
Coach: Manuel Baum
Union: Luthe - Trimmel (c), Friedrich, Knoche, Lenz - Prömel, Andrich – Becker (Gentner 77'), Kruse (Ingvartsen 77'), Bülter (Endo 90'+2) – Pohjanpalo (Awoniyi 67')
Unused subs: Karius, Ryerson, Hübner, Griesbeck, Teuchert
Out: Gentner (calf), Schlotterbeck (thigh), Ujah (knee)
Coach: Urs Fischer