What the papers say: 'A hard-fought, evenly balanced but poor western encounter'

The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger report initially looks at the special circumstances surrounding this encounter with the closure of the last coal mine at the end of the week: "This turning point for North Rhine Westphalia was remembered ahead of the Bundesliga fixture on Wednesday night between the club founded by coal miners FC Schalke 04 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen: emotional speeches, fireworks, the miners' song, the 'Steigerlied', sunk by a large miners choir and impressive choreography in the North Stand at the Veltins Arena." The game itself roused little enthusiasm with the Stadt Anzeiger: "What happened in the 90 minutes of the game could never compete with the beginning of the evening. Bayer 04 beat the Royal Blues 2-1 in a duel of the disappointing. The result was less down to Leverkusen's strength than Schalke's inability."

The Kölnischen Rundschau reports: "The last pit has closed and Germany's former champions FC Schalke 04 don't entertain the fans in the 'Ruhrpott' any more. Bayer 04 exploited the uncertainty of the Royal Blues and won a hard-fought, evenly balanced but poor western encounter 2-1 on Wednesday night … Bayer move up to the top half of the table with the win and a victory at home on Saturday against Hertha Berlin could see the first half of the season end in a relatively decent fashion. In contrast, there is sadness at Schalke that the runners-up are caught up in a relegation battle."

The sober judgement of the Bild : "Bayer put Schalke in trouble: 15 points is the worst return in 25 years. The runners-up credit for coach Domenico Tedesco (33) is rapidly melting away before Christmas. The reality: A relegation battle."

The analysis in the Kicker  reads: "The visitors were extremely reserved at the start but benefited from Schalke mistakes in one of the two halves of an incredibly hectic and erratic game. Schöpf's poor pass to Stambouli went unpunished with Kohr through on Fährmann (24') before first Dragovic and then Alario exploited the defensive lack of organisation and individual errors by Stambouli and Fährmann. After Wright pulled a goal back, the hosts pressed for the equaliser but again and again failed due to their limited ability and options. Leverkusen  did allow S04 too much space but Schalke – particularly on the counter – made too many mistakes and were careless in their finishing  (Konoplyanka, 73') to gain any reward. A double whammy gave the visitors a comfortable lead that Leverkusen  were lucky to hold onto in the second half." The man of the match for the Kicker was Aleksandar Dragovic who also made it into the 'Team of the Matchday': "Until he had to go off injured, the central defender was solid in defence and also in his build-up play. And he scored the important opening goal for Bayer as well."

The Rheinische Post draws the following conclusion: "Leverkusen appeared unimpressed with the emotional atmosphere amongst the 61,548 spectators at the almost completely sold out arena. From the start, the Werkself endeavoured not to concede and were then clinical in attack. … In the second half it became more physical. The referee Aytekin had a lot to do to calm the heated passions of the pros. Schalke were clearly determined to level the scores but rarely found themselves in promising positions. When the Werkself, now sitting deeper, did give something away the  substitutes Steven Skrzybski (68') and Yevhen Konoplyanka (73') lost their nerve in front of goal. The final attack  of the hosts ended without success."