If one goalkeeper was going to dominate the discussion in this game, it actually felt as if it would be the less busy one. Schalke fans do not take kindly to being dumped and even if Manuel Neuer left the club behind 15 years ago – and even if most of the world associates him with Bayern Munich rather than his home town club – he is still given a rough ride when he returns.
Opposing sporting directors Max Eberl and Frank Baumann had words to say about that after Saturday evening's latest visit, but it wasn't Germany's legendary goalkeeper who took the headlines – or not he alone, at least. It was always going to be a landmark afternoon with Schalke playing a first home game in the top flight since May 2023, but this was way beyond what anyone could have expected. The numbers said it all – with Bayern failing to score for the first time domestically since a goalless draw at Leverkusen more than 18 months ago, meaning they finished the weekend not on top of the table for the first time in almost two years – but told nothing of the story.
For at the end of this goalless draw, the story was Loris Karius . A goalkeeper who, once upon a time, might have hoped to back up Neuer in the national team on the rare occasions that the totem was indisposed, but whose career has become about attrition rather than aspiration. At 33, this was a day in the sun that seemed like it would never come. Little was expected of Miron Muslic's team here, with damage limitation and a swift moving on to more winnable battles perhaps the realistic aim, with last week's 3-0 loss at Augsburg (a bright start followed by a frank reality check) indicative of the task facing them back at the top table.
Little has been expected of Karius for a long time, going all the way back to what turned out to be his final Liverpool appearance, the error-strewn Champions League final against Real Madrid in Kyiv in 2018 . By the time we learned that Karius's mistakes were likely conditioned by a concussion suffered earlier in the game, the die had been cast and the damage to his reputation done.
You may know some of the tale since. A move to Besiktas which ran aground when he was forced to take action against the club (twice) for unpaid wages. Another loan to Union Berlin which led to just four Bundesliga appearances – the only league games, mind you, that he would play between leaving Istanbul in May 2020 and being drafted in late to Newcastle's lineup against Arsenal in February 2024 after Martin Dubravka fell ill on the day of the game. A year before he had been brought in to cover for the suspended Nick Pope in the Carabao Cup final, his first first-team game in two years, and performed creditably.
If the journey has been confusing to us, imagine what it was like for Karius. "Even today," he told Welt this summer, "I don't know what I should have done differently. I just felt empty. I even considered ending my career, but I was only 25 years old and couldn't just stay home." When he joined Schalke in January 2025 it was six months after his Newcastle deal ended, and then-coach Kees van Wonderen made it clear Karius was signing as second choice. Yet by February he had made the starting spot his own – before picking up a calf injury four games in that forced him to miss the rest of the season.
Last season the worm began to turn. Muslic put his faith in him – as the club already had by extending his contract – and Karius started 30 of the 34 games as the coach's belt-and-braces side conceded a league-low 31 goals and won the 2.Bundesliga. This summer, his deal was extended again, to 2028.
All of these landmarks in Gelsenkirchen have been victories, but it felt like there were limits for Karius, just like there are for this Schalke, the original giants of German football, the Bayern-before-Bayern, who have been living on reduced means for a number of years now. If they had been the high rollers of just a few years ago, there would have been little need or inclination to give Karius his chance.
But he had his chance here, and he took it. There was command, confidence and a string of fine saves, capped by a stunning, flying one-hander to prevent Harry Kane smashing a late winner. It may be pointed out that neither Kane nor Michael Olise started in a game that also saw Jamal Musiala make a comeback from the bench; it should also be noted that when Vincent Kompany rotated his star pair in the latter stages of last season to keep them fresh around Champions League games, it was a cheat code, unleashing the league's two best players on tiring defences.
Karius had all the answers, and was warmly greeted by Kompany at full-time, who had been a senior when he was a young player at Manchester City about 15 years ago. That amount of time seemed like nothing on an evening when the past loomed large.
For this, "very likely my last game" in Gelsenkirchen before an eventual retirement, every boo, catcall and chant directed at Neuer felt pertinent. He started training at Schalke when he was five, used to watch matches from the same Nordkurve that rained their displeasure down on him and made over 200 appearances for the first team. The reception was not unexpected but, perhaps accentuated by the sense that this season might be Neuer's victory lap, there were plenty who felt the need to fight his corner. Eberl called the treatment of his goalkeeper "inappropriate", and Baumann, his opposite number at Schalke, had disapproving words for his own fans. Neuer's fellow Gelsenkirchner Olaf Thon wrote in his column in Kicker that "Gelsenkirchen should be proud of him", rather than booing him.
The man himself was a little more sanguine, having invited a cluster of family members. "That's love," he said. "Every whistle is a compliment." Both Neuer and Karius could tell you that the life of a goalkeeper is thus; setbacks inevitable, but comebacks somewhat less so.
Bundesliga results
Stuttgart 4-1 Cologne, Leverkusen 4-0 Union Berlin, Mönchengladbach 3-4 Elversberg, Schalke 0-0 Bayern Munich, Paderborn 0-1 Freiburg , Hoffenheim 2-3 Dortmund , Werder Bremen 3-1 Leipzig, Hamburg 0-5 Mainz, Eintracht 1-4 Augsburg
• Borussia Dortmund have maximum points, thanks to a remarkable comeback at Hoffenheim. Remarkable, because they should have been three or four down rather than just 2-0, before Serhou Guirassy and Fábio Silva brought them level and Ethan Nwaneri , on his debut, engineered an unlikely winning own goal by Albian Hajdari . Credit too to the newly-adventurous Niko Kovac for sending on the Arsenal loanee for the injured centre-back Filippo Mané and Silva for midfielder Konstantinos Karetsas .
• BVB are only third, though. Augsburg lead the pack after coming back from a half-time deficit to eventually demolish a woeful Eintracht Frankfurt in Sunday's late game, and Freiburg sit second after their single-goal win at Paderborn. Meanwhile Elversberg wowed this week too, recovering from 3-1 down at Borussia Mönchengladbach to win via Maurice Krattenmacher 's stoppage-time winner (his second goal) to make them the fourth team with two wins from two.
• Cheers also for Jarell Quansah , impressing as a rampaging right-back in Leverkusen's 4-0 hammering of Union Berlin, their first points of the season, and Niclas Füllkrug scoring (already) header of the season in Werder Bremen's surprise 3-1 win over Leipzig.
| Pos |
Team |
P |
GD |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Augsburg |
2 |
6 |
6 |
| 2 |
Freiburg |
2 |
4 |
6 |
| 3 |
Borussia Dortmund |
2 |
3 |
6 |
| 4 |
Elversberg |
2 |
2 |
6 |
| 5 |
Mainz |
2 |
5 |
4 |
| 6 |
Bayern Munich |
2 |
4 |
4 |
| 7 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
|
| 8 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|
| 9 |
Stuttgart |
2 |
-1 |
3 |
| 10 |
Werder Bremen |
2 |
-1 |
3 |
| 11 |
Cologne |
2 |
-2 |
3 |
| 12 |
Paderborn |
2 |
-1 |
1 |
| 13 |
Eintracht Frankfurt |
2 |
-3 |
1 |
| 14 |
Schalke 04 |
2 |
-3 |
1 |
| 15 |
Union Berlin |
2 |
-4 |
1 |
| 16 |
Hoffenheim |
2 |
-2 |
0 |
| 17 |
Borussia M'gladbach |
2 |
-4 |
0 |
| 18 |
Hamburg |
2 |
-7 |
0 |
