Schalke’s Julian Draxler has come under fire from his teammates for acting greedily on perhaps his side’s best scoring opportunity against Bayern Munich in their Bundesliga clash on Saturday.
With the match at 0-0 in the 50th minute, die Konigsblauen had a clear chance to score on the counterattack with Draxler on the break with teammates in tow.
In the end, the teenager botched the chance on goal as he failed to give the ball to a waiting Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. The side from the Ruhr ended up losing the match 2-0, but that moment remained in the minds of several players after the final whistle.
“Julian could not get the ball under control. It was disappointing that we did not make more of it,” said Huntelaar.
Midfielder Roman Neustadter also had his say on the matter.
“That piece of play took us out of our rhythm,” said Neustadter.
Germany international Lewis Holtby reflected on the play, too, calling it the turning point of the match.
“If we do more there, the game may have looked differently. Three minutes later Thomas Muller scores and the game was over for Schalke,” he explained.
Draxler and his teammates will now look forward to a league clash with Mainz on Tuesday.