Gelsenkirchen (Germany), Dec 19 (DPA) Schalke 04 climbed to the top of the Bundesliga standings with a 1-0 victory over Mainz 05.
The three points, secured through a first-half goal from Jefferson Farfan Friday, takes Schalke to 34 points from their 17 matches and they can – at least for a day – consider themselves as the ‘autumn champions’.
However, Bayer Leverkusen, who are two points behind, can move back to the top of the table if they manage to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach at home Saturday.
Although Schalke, who have yet to win the Bundesliga title, completely dominated proceedings, they failed to create many chances throughout the 90 minutes.
Peruvian Farfan secured the three points in the 12th minute after being brilliantly set-up by Lewis Holtby and the international gently lobbed the ball past the advancing goalkeeper Heinz Mueller.
Just eight minutes later Schalke’s Heiko Westermann should have put his side two-goals up after a corner from Ivan Rakitic, but his header went just wide.
Mainz, who are occupying a comfortable mid-table position did very little to get back into the game and apart from a late chance from Serbian Srdjan Baljak had no clear-cut chance.
Goalkeeper Mueller said that his side had simply not played the way they had intended to. “We wanted to be in the game, but after going behind we were simply not in the game.
“Schalke did not have many chances though, so I think we could have gone away with a point from here,” he said.
Schalke coach Felix Magath, who last season won the season with VfL Wolfsburg, said that they had made it difficult for themselves. “We should have scored a second after going ahead and it is our fault that we did not do that.
“As a result we were under pressure at the end. That was not necessary.”
rounak