Apparently, Schalke had special preparation for the notoriously hostile atmosphere of Galatasaray’s Turk Telecom Arena in Istanbul ahead of the first-leg of their UEFA Champions League Roundof 16 series on Wednesday. “We simulated the atmosphere of this stadium with a laptop, which prepared us very well,” midfielder Julian Draxler told ZDF. “Matchesaren’t a lot of fun if 60,000 fans hiss against you, but I think we focused on the important part, delivered a good performance and built ourselves a solid foundation for the second leg.”
Indeed, the 1-1 draw gives the Bundesliga side a slight edge going into the return leg in Gelsenkirchen on March 12. An open first-half saw Schalke go behind to a 12th-minute BurakYilmaz goal, although both teams had several chances to score. Then, just before halftime, U.S. international Jermaine Jones started and then rounded off a brilliantcounterattack, which Gala coach Fatih Terim admitted was the turning point: “We created two great opportunities to make it 2-0, then the equalizer damaged our morale just beforehalftime,” he said. “We went in front with a great goal, but after that made too many sloppy mistakes.”
Meanwhile,