Throwback Thursday: When Schalke gatecrashed the Champions League semi-finals

Tuesday night was one that will live long in the memory for the Ajax fans that travelled to Turin as the Eredivisie giants booked their place in the final four of the Champions League. 

Having dispatched of holders Real Madrid, Erik ten Hag’s young side deservedly eliminated Juventus to secure what most felt was an unlikely semi-final spot. It isn’t, however, particularly uncommon for an underdog to reach that stage of the competition, with Roma doing so last time around along with - to a lesser extent - Liverpool. Tottenham’s aggregate win over Manchester City this season another example. 

The season beforehand Monaco knocked out the well-fancied Manchester City en route to the last four, while in 2010/11 Schalke disposed of reigning champions Inter at the quarter-final stage. 

It was a bizarre season for Ralf Rangnick’s side, and one that has been brought into focus once more in the current campaign as S04 struggled to juggle their European and domestic duties. Schalke finished 14th in the league - one place higher than where they sit now - having finished the previous campaign in second, just as they did last year. 

Where the current side were pulverised by Manchester City in the last-16, however, the team of 2010/11 came close to going the distance among Europe’s elite, but where are they now? 

Between the posts for the royal blues was a certain Manuel Neuer, who left for Bayern the very next season and never looked back. Thereafter, up until a broken foot that ruled him out for a year in 2017, the Germany captain was considered by many as the best goalkeeper in the world. 

The 2010/11 season was Japan international Atsuto Uchida’s first following a move from Kashima Antlers and the right-back started all but one of Schalke’s 12 Champions League matches. He would remain in Gelsenkirchen until 2017, moving to Union Berlin on a free before returning to his former J-League employers just five months later. 

Christoph Metzelder was the experienced head at the back having arrived from Real Madrid in the summer, playing out his final years at the club before retiring at the age of just 32 upon the conclusion of the 2012/13 campaign. 

The German international was partnered by academy product Benedikt Howedes at the back, who would go on to become a fan favourite and club captain the very next season. The versatile defender was the starting left-back for the World Cup winning national team of 2014 but left his boyhood club in 2017 to join Juventus on loan before moving permanently to Lokomotiv Moscow. 

Youngsters Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Joel Matip each featured regularly in the side too, with the former - now at Hamburg - seeing his career stunted by serious injuries ever since. The latter is of course now bidding to go one better than he managed with Schalke once more and reach a second successive Champions League final with Liverpool. 

One Ivan Rakitic started the campaign in midfield for the German outfit before a January move to Sevilla, with Matip and Papadopoulos both stepping into midfield in the latter stages on occasion. Elsewhere Jose Manuel Jurado played a starring role in a number of positions in midfield following his arrival from Atletico Madrid, scoring three times and registering three assists. The Spaniard now plays in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ahli. 

Meanwhile there was a place in the squad for Julian Draxler, who made his first Champions League start in the semi-final exit to Manchester United at the age of 18, leaving the club for Wolfsburg four years later before moving onto PSG in January 2017. 

The star of the show in terms of WhoScored.com rating was Peruvian Jefferson Farfan (7.49), who scored four times en route to the semis and was a fan favourite despite suffering numerous injuries prior to his departure for Al-Jazira in 2015. He has since joined Lokomotiv - playing alongside Howedes once more - where he scored 10 goals last season to help the team to the Russian Premier League title. 

The top scorer, meanwhile, was a Champions League legend in Raul, who netted five times in 12 appearances and registered a further two assists having arrived from Real Madrid in the summer. He stayed with the Bundesliga club for one more season before moving to Al Sadd in Qatar and ending his career with the New York Cosmos at the age of 37. 

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was the second striker following his arrival from AC Milan in the summer, scoring three times in eight Champions League outings. He would go on to score 29 league goals the very next season, but never reached the same heights again before returning to the Netherlands with the aforementioned Ajax in 2017, coming off the bench for the club in their victory over Juventus on Tuesday.