Schalke 04 are up to third in the Bundesliga after Peru’s Jefferson Farfan and Georgia’s Levan Kobiashvili scored in the 2-1 win over Cologne on Sunday, while Hamburg stay top of the league.
Farfan headed Schalke into the lead after just two minutes, but Cologne, who are still chasing their first win of the season since promotion, equalized when Lukas Podolski scored his first league goal since returning from Bayern Munich.
But Schalke took the three points when Kobiashvili scored immediately after the break to pick up their fifth win in seven games.
“I was nervous for the last half hour,” said Schalke coach Felix Magath. “But I am happy that we were able to weather this pressure. For the young team we have I think it was fine today.”
Werder Bremen were held to a 0-0 draw at home to midtable Hanover to leave them sixth.
Hanover’s Florian Fromlowitz, substituting for Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke who is suffering from an infection, denied the hosts on half a dozen occasions.
Bremen laid a second-half siege in the Hanover defense but Per Mertesacker had a point-blank header kicked off the line by defender Steven Cherundolo.
Tim Borowski’s long-range effort flew wide and Marko Marin’s drive was blocked well by Fromlowitz.
The 23-year-old keeper denied Claudio Pizarro’s double strike in the 58th and then blocked the Peruvian’s next effort minutes later.
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