As the half progressed, VfB were able to prevent the constant flow of Schalke attacks and, with a half hour on the clock, got sight of the home side’s goal. Cristian Molinaro’s corner was only half-heartedly cleared and fell to the Italian again. Molinaro fired in another cross which S04 keeper Lars Unnerstall got a hand to, but could only turn the ball towards Maza, who was unfortunately unable to make a clean contact. Towards the end of the half, the home managed to pen VfB back in their own half and Bruno Labbadia’s men were somewhat fortunate to be just a goal down at the break.

Set plays sink Stuttgart

VfB decided against making any changes at half time, whilst S04 coach Huub Stevens replaced Baumjohann with Julian Drexler. The half began with both sides looking to find their respective shape. As the half wore on, Schalke began to up the pressure again and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had his next chance on goal, which Sven Ulreich turned away for a corner. Draxler fired in the set-piece and found Kyriakos Papadopoulos powering through the centre to head home strongly and make it 2-0.

Bruno Labbadia saw fit to bring fresh legs into play and introduced Julian Schieber and Shinji Okazaki to replace William Kvist and Martin Harnik respectively – Cacau joined Pogrebnyak in the centre forward role, with Schieber left and Okazaki right. The move did breathe some life into the VfB attack. In the 71st minute, Schieber got to the by-line past Uchida and got a delivery across the face of the goal, which Papadopoulos deflected dangerously so that Christian Fuchs was forced to make a last ditch clearance. For all their efforts, VfB’s energy was beginning to drain and the game was them put beyond them by Julian Draxler, who made it 3-0.

Late on, Shinji Okazaki converted a Hajnal effort which had rebounded off the post to make it 1-3, but it was too little, too late for VfB, who started the year with a defeat.