Chelsea underestimated Schalke - Keller

The Blues were held to a 1-1 draw by the visitors on Wednesday, who are mired in the Bundesliga relegation zone early in 2014-15, and the coach was proud of his players' efforts

Schalke boss Jens Keller suspects that Chelsea may have underestimated his team after they snatched a point in their Champions League tussle on Wednesday.


Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring 11 minutes in at Stamford Bridge, sparking many to wonder if it would be a question of how many Chelsea goals rather than what result would it be.

But Schalke, who are third-from-bottom in the Bundesliga, capitalised on the Blues' failure to add to their slender lead in the second half - striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar dispossessing Fabregas, playing a near one-two with Julian Draxler and striking home the equaliser.

The Gelsenkirchen side's performances domestically have put Keller's job under scrutiny and he was relieved to bag a positive result against the Premier League table-toppers, stressing his pride with how they stood their ground as underdogs.

"When I look at this game, I am very proud of my team," the coach told Sky Sport. "With all the negative things happening, we played tactically top and some good football, too.

"I have to give a big compliment to my team for their performance. Every player did what he was supposed to do.

"It's possible Chelsea underestimated us but we did perform excellently from a tactics perspective."

Schalke will host Maribor - who earned a late draw at home to Sporting on Wednesday - on September 30 in their next Champions League clash.