Manuel Riemann gave his former coach Thomas Reis the victory on his explosive return with FC Schalke 04 to VfL Bochum. A slapstick own goal by the VfL goalkeeper (45th minute) initiated the 2:0 (1:0) of the newly promoted team at the new bottom of the Bundesliga table on Saturday. Marius Bülter (78.) also scored in the second victory in a row of Schalke, who were still undefeated in the return series.

With now 19 points, the Royal Blues moved past the Bochumern level on points and now finally have realistic chances of remaining in the class again. VfL, on the other hand, conceded their fourth Bundesliga defeat in a row.

The focus was above all on the long-standing Bochum Reis, who is currently on the right track to keep Schalke in the league. The former Bochum professional, youth coach and coach Reis is said to have informed the VfL officials last summer after Schalke's rise of his desire to move to Gelsenkirchen.

"We are Bochum and you are not"

The Bochum rejected this and finally gave Reis a leave of absence after a catastrophic false start with six defeats from the first six games and plenty of discord. Reis himself had always denied contact with Schalke, but had moved to Schalke only a few weeks after his departure in Bochum as successor to Frank Kramer. The Bochum fans had resented him.

The reception on Saturday was correspondingly frosty when Reis' return to the Ruhrstadion. "If you're not an honorless bastard, who is?" read a poster in the VfL fan curve before the game. There were also "Wir sind Bochum und du nicht" chants.

Reis endured this stoically. He demonstratively stood on the sidelines with a bright hoodie with a large Schalke emblem on his back. "Strangely enough, I slept well. It's just like that in sports, especially as a coach. It is simply important to keep a cool head," Reis had said before the explosive duel at Sky. In the game, however, he initially saw a hesitant and inhibited own team. Bochum were snappier and had more and above all better scoring chances in the first half.

"We want to see you fight"

The best were awarded by Philipp Hofmann from the shortest distance (7th) and Christopher Antwi-Adjei (21st) a little too clumsily after a positional error by the otherwise strong Schalke defender Moritz Jenz. Schalke did not have a single chance in the first half, but still unexpectedly took the lead before the break because Bochum goalkeeper Riemann gave the guests a goal. After a cross from Rodrigo Zalazar, the ball bounced past Riemann from Bülter. But instead of catching the ball in front of the line, the 34-year-old pushed the leather over the line very unluckily.

After the change, Schalke was more powerful. However, this also had an effect on the Bochum appendix. The VfL fans reacted disappointed to their team's harmless second half and chanted: "We want to see you fight." At least this was not to blame the team of coach Thomas Letsch. Playfully, however, it was far too little from VfL. In view of the disappointing second half, the decision by Bülter after a Zalazar corner was deserved.