The final moments of today's match at the Mestalla - the minutes where Schalke was supposed to try and bleed out the match and take a 1-1 draw back to Gelsenkirchen - Schalke nearly stole a second goal. First it was Raúl, as regulation time ran out, taking advantage of a bad give away by Tino Costa, nearly chipping Vicente Guaiti from the far left. Next it was Hao Junmin, recently on for Klass-Jan Huntelaar (as Felix Magath's third, time wasting substitute) who burst through the midfield with the ball, pulling up at the edge of the area for a shot that forces Guaiti to lay-out to his right. Where Valencia had made changes intent on chasing the match, it was Schalke that looking more like the winning side.
Late in the match, however, Schalke got some bad news. Left back Lukas Schmitz, booked very early in the match, saw a second yellow, apparently for some language directed at am opponent. Schmitz will now miss the return leg in Germany.
With the last touches of the match, Aritz Aduriz put a dead ball cross to Manuel Neuer's far corner, with some suspect Schalke defending giving Valencia supporters reason to think their side could improbably salvage a win in stoppage time.
But it wasn't meant to be, leaving the record-breaking goal from Raúl to be the match's decisive score. With that 64th minute tally, Raúl not only became the most prolific scorer in European competition but also reversed an hour of Valencia control. With the equalizer, Schalke has an all-important road goal, sending the match back to the Veltins-Arena with the German club holding the advantage.
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