Schalke manager Andre Breitenreiter says that his side's poor start to the game cost them in the 3-0 defeat to Wolfsburg on Friday night.

Bas Dost opened the scoring for the home side after 17 minutes as Wolfsburg ended Schalke's unbeaten start to the season with a comfortable victory.

Breitenreiter bemoaned his team's slow start to the match but praised the way that his players competed in the second half of the defeat.

"We started the game very poorly," he told the Schalke website. "We were asleep for the first 25 minutes – we lacked aggression, skill and bite, and we deservedly went 1-0 down.

"After quite a stern half-time team talk we made it a lot more difficult for Wolfsburg in the second period – we were more aggressive.

"Unfortunately we weren't able to take any of our chances in the first quarter of an hour of the second half, and we went to sleep at the back twice and suddenly found ourselves 3-0 down.

"However, we can't forget that our team is still in a transitional period. Despite the disappointing result, the boys are on the right track."

The loss was Schalke's first defeat of the season after they took four points from their opening two matches.