Schalke manager Domenico Tedesco says that he is extremely delighted with the narrow victory over Mainz 05. Despite playing against the relegation threatened opponent, Schalke were only able to come away with a narrow victory. The team managed to take all three points thanks to the only goal of the game from Daniel Caligiuri. However, the match was all about three points and reaping the full rewards mean that Schalke will be able to occupy the second spot ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Frankfurt.
There are four teams in contention for the top four places with Bayern Munich are running away with the league title. Even with the recent changes to the Champions League qualification awarding more direct qualification places in the German league, Schalke is still fighting for a second place finish in the table. This will be a huge moral boost for the club. Things were expected to be rosy when Schalke was taking on Mainz 05, who have been struggling for form throughout the campaign.
As a result, Mainz 05 find themselves very close to the relegation zone. After the game, Tedesco claims that he witnessed two different halves and he is just happy to see his Schalke team come away with all three points. This was the fourth consecutive league win for Tedesco and his men.
“All in all, it wasn’t the best first half of football you’ll ever see as both sides were aggressive and hard-working. In the second half, we played like we too were fighting relegation. We scored a crucial goal thanks to Daniel Caligiuri’s solo effort. In the closing stages, we defended well. Nothing more, nothing less. We can be honest with each other and say Mainz deserved to get something from the game, but we held on,” said the Schalke manager.