But Heiko Westermann's equaliser five minutes before the final whistle robbed last season's runners up of their first win of this season.
Germany player Torsten Frings told bundesliga.de later that he wasn't entirely happy with the result.
bundesliga.de: Thorsten Frings, 1:1 against Schalke 04. How do you rate that?
Torsten Frings: I think we played a good match. For most of the game, we had Schalke well under control. The reason we didn't win were the many gold-plated chances we failed to convert. We knew Schalke were strong in defence and three or four times we were alone in front of goal. We should have snapped up our chances.
bundesliga.de: Was it an improvement over your game against Bielefeld?
Frings: Absolutely. I saw an improvement. The only criticism I have was over taking our chances. If we do that in future, we will win games.
bundesliga.de: Two points from two games. Not a good start?
Frings: We are to blame for that.. Other teams will drop points at Bielefeld. Against Schalke, we were the better team. Even so, we didn't take our chances.
bundesliga.de: How did you rate Claudio Pizarro's return?
Frings: He played a decent game. He was missing a bit of edge because he had a couple of chances. It's good to know we have an attacker we can always play the ball to.
bundesliga.de: You've known him for years. How do you rate Pizzaro's condition now?
Frings: I don't really know. It's not the point anyway. I am sure that he'll get a lot better. Then he'll show that cool touch in front of goal.
bundesliga.de: What led up to your goal?
Frings: I called to Markus to let the ball run. It was a good strike. I'm happy it went in.
Thorsten Frings spoke to Oliver Bülow
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