Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi fired Schalke 04 up to joint second in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Kuranyi’s 15th league goal of the season — after just two minutes — gave Schalke three points with a 1-0 win in Hamburg to go level on 54 points with Werder Bremen, who shared a 3-3 draw at Karlsruhe.
After Schalke 04 sacked coach Mirko Slomka two weeks ago, caretaker coach Mike Bueskens was delighted with the 1-0 win at rivals Hamburg.
“I am very, very pleased with the win,” he said. “We beat a direct competitor for a Champions League place and the early goal worked well for us. Hamburg played well, but just didn’t take their chances.”
Schalke and Bremen, who are second on goal difference, are now nine points behind Bayern with four games left.
A Bayern win yesterday would send them 12 points clear with a vastly superior goal difference and only a mathematical miracle would prevent them being crowned German champions for the 21st time.
The draw in Karlsruhe was a blow to Werder Bremen, who were shocked by an early goal when Karlsruhe striker Sebastian Freis drilled home his 15th minute shot.
Werder hit back when midfielder Diego equalized eight minutes later and former Schalke midfielder Mesut Oezil scored his first goal of the season to put Bremen 2-1 ahead on 29 minutes.
But Freis added his second on 59 minutes, before Kapllani put Karlsruhe ahead only for Bremen striker Boubacar Sanogo to level the scores in the 86th minute.
“It was a very entertaining game and the fans got their money’s worth,” Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said.
Further down the table, striker Mike Hanke gave Hanover an early goal at home to Hertha Berlin, before Czech striker Jiri Stajner enjoyed the simplest of tap-ins to make it 2-0 after 26 minutes.
But Berlin clawed a goal back with a second-half penalty to make it 2-1, before Lukasz Piszczek equalized in the 66th minute to make it 2-2.
Down at the bottom of the table, Slovakian striker Marek Mintal netted a first-half goal for Nuremberg and Russian striker Ivan Saenko made it 2-0 against Arminia Bielefeld after 39 minutes with a superb strike.
But Bielefeld hit back as Artur Wichniarek and Markus Bollmann scored second-half goals to make it 2-2.
Energie Cottbus pulled themselves further from the relegation battle with a 2-1 win over Hansa Rostock.
Duisburg have gone bottom of the table with a 1-1 draw against VfL Bochum.
On Friday night mid-table sides Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund drew 1-1.
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