Schalke 04 1 - 1 SC Freiburg: Yevhen Konoplyanka's first Bundesliga goal sees Schalke draw with Freiburg

Posted Sunday, December 18, 2016 by PA

Yevhen Konoplyanka's first Bundesliga goal earned Schalke a point at home to Freiburg on Saturday.

Florian Niederlechner put the visitors in front before Konoplyanka levelled at 1-1 and saved the Royal Blues from what would have been a third straight league defeat.

Janik Haberer's header from 15 yards out, which just missed the post, was the first opportunity of the game which surprisingly went Freiburg's way. They were largely soaking up the pressure and seeking chances on the counter-attack, like the one which Vincenzo Grifo dragged wide of the post just before the interval.

Schalke's best chances in a first half they had largely controlled came from Konoplyanka, but he was unable to test Alexander Schwolow in the Freiburg goal on either occasion.

Sead Kolasinac just managed to get onto the end of Konoplyanka's cross right under the crossbar, but he was unable to get any direction on his effort which went over on the hour mark.

Freiburg's next break, just a few minutes later, saw them take the lead with Niederlechner getting in around the back of Thilo Kehrer, whose stumble allowed the Freiburg forward to progress unchallenged, round Ralf Fahrmann and tuck the ball in.

Konoplyanka brought Schalke level 10 minutes later, this time making no mistake with his header from six yards as he met Rahman Baba's cross unchallenged. It was enough to earn Markus Weinzierl's men a point, but that will not be considered enough by the Gelsenkirchen club, who are now nine points adrift of the top six.