Schalke remain rooted to the foot of the Bundesliga table, eight points adrift of Mainz in the relegation play-off spot, after the two sides played out a goalless draw at the Veltins-Arena.

Schalke 0-0 Mainz

Dimitrios Grammozis handed 18-year-old Kerim Calhanoglu his Bundesliga debut at left-back, but the new Schalke head coach's preparations were rocked by an injury in the warm-up to influential playmaker Amine Harit. A devilish corner from his replacement, Can Bozdogan, provided a rare spot of Schalke excitement in the first half, but Shkodran Mustafi's point-blank header was beaten away by Robin Zentner. Mainz found more joy in the final third as Leandro Barreiro toe-poked a low Danny Da Costa cross narrowly wide and Adam Szalai shot wide on the turn. The ex-Schalke striker was presented with a glorious opening to break the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, but failed to make contact with Moussa Niakhate's ball into the box.

Mainz emerged from the restart with more urgency about their game, albeit failing to test the returning Frederik Rönnow in the Schalke goal. Jonathan Burkardt and Philipp Mwene might have, had their goal-bound efforts not found a Schalke defender first. The Royal Blues offered precious little in response, with the contest being played almost entirely on Mainz's terms for the final half-hour. Burkardt whipped an effort wide following a teasing run, before Suat Serdar made Zentner work from 18 yards, very much against the run of play. Mainz looked the more likely as Burkardt brought a superb save from Rönnow, but the winning goal that would have lifted them out of the bottom three was not forthcoming.

Match stats

• Grammozis made his Bundesliga debut as a coach. He played in Germany's top flight 143 times as a player.
• Calhanoglu is the 34th different player used by Schalke in this season's Bundesliga. He is the cousin of former Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen playmaker, Hakan.
• Mainz fired off 18 goal attempts to Schalke's two.
• Schalke have only won once in the league this season.
• Matthew Hoppe scored five times with his first five efforts on goal, but is without a goal in his last seven matches.
• Szalai played in the same Schalke team as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in 2013/14, scoring seven goals in 28 Bundesliga appearances. However, he has not scored in the Bundesliga in 38 matches, dating back to 2 December 2019.

Watch: Hoppe: "We have to keep fighting"

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Line-ups

Schalke: Rönnow - Becker, Mustafi, Thiaw, Calahanoglu - Serdar, Kolasinac (c) (Mascarell 78') - William, Bozdogan (Stambouli 46'), Raman (Oczipka 90'+3) - Hoppe (Schuler 61')
Unused subs: Langer, Schöpf, Mercan, Harit, Flick
Out: Bentaleb (groin), Boujellab (ankle), Fährmann (rib), Huntelaar (calf), Ludewig (foot), Nastasic (calf), Paciencia (knee), Sane (knee), Skrzybski (knee), Uth (thigh)
Coach: Dimitrios Grammozis
 
Mainz: Zentner - St. Juste, Bell, Niakhate - da Costa (Brosinski 80'), Kohr, Barreiro (Stöger 89'), Mwene - Latza (c) (Boetius 46') - Burkhardt (Quaison 89'), Szalai (Glatzel 74')
Unused subs: Dahmen, Öztunali, Kunde
Out: Fernandes (ankle), Onisiwo (muscular)
Coach: Bo Svensson

About the clubs

1. FSV Mainz 05

MEWA ARENA

FC Schalke 04

VELTINS-Arena