Bremen slump as Schalke march on

Kuranyi opener
German international Kevin Kuranyi, who scored for his country in midweek, gave Schalke the lead with a brave header from Lincoln's corner on 64 minutes before Danish striker Peter Løvenkrands, who scored both in Schalke's 2-0 defeat of Bremen last weekend, slid in the rebound from his own shot eleven minutes later to secure the home side's tenth victory in eleven matches.

Top goalscorer
Striker Mario Gomez, also on target in Germany's 3-1 victory against Switzerland, became the Bundesliga's sole top goalscorer with Stuttgart's second and his 12th of the season as the southern German side closed the gap on Bremen to one point. Roberto Hilbert had given Stuttgart the lead on three minutes and further strikes from Ludovic Magnin (34) and Marco Streller (86) made light of Diego's 22nd-minute effort. Schalke, who remain hopeful of a first German title in almost 50 years, lead the standings on 48 points from 21 matches with Bremen on 42 and Stuttgart a further point adrift.

Hamburg hope
Bottom club Hamburger SV's new coach Huub Stevens claimed a vital win in his home debut on Saturday when his side won 3-0 against BV Borussia Dortmund for only their second victory this season. Rafael van der Vaart gave his side the lead from the penalty spot on eleven minutes before Collin Benjamin (39) and Mehdi Mahdavikia (90) made sure of the points.

Zidan treble
Second-from-bottom 1. FSV Mainz 05 moved up to 14th place after their 4-1 success against FC Energie Cottbus thanks to a hat-trick from Mohamed Zidan, while Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt shared a 2-2 draw and VfL Borussia Mönchengladach were held to a goalless draw at home to TSV Alemannia Aachen. In Friday night’s match VfL Wolfsburg also drew, 2-2 with Hannover 96.