Schalke strike in Hamburg

Schalke were the biggest winners of Sunday as they eased to a 3-0 victory at Hamburg.

Schalke were the biggest winners of the match day as they eased to a 3-0 victory at Hamburg to gain ground on teams ahead of them in the Bundesliga table. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar opened the scoring in the 34th minute before Jefferson Farfan made it 2-0 in the 53rd minute and Max Meyer ended all doubts with a third score three minutes later. After Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolfsburg all lost this weekend and Borussia Dortmund recorded a draw, Schalke improved to fifth place with 31 points, while Hamburg remain in the relegation zone in 16th place with 16 points. Hamburg saw striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga get subbed off injured after just 24 minutes and coach Bert van Marwijk had to swap out defender Zhi-Gin Lam eight minutes later. Schalke took advantage of the disorder in the Hamburg team to jump ahead after 34 minutes. Schalke's midfielders had plenty of space to work the ball to Farfan for a cross into the middle where Huntelaar headed home from eight yards out. Hamburg were close to equalising in the 39th minute but Schalke keeper Ralf Fahrmann did a good job fending away Rafael van der Vaart's curling free-kick from the upper right corner. The visitors made it 2-0 eight minutes after the break as Farfan played defender Felipe Santana's long ball past Hamburg keeper Jaroslav Drobny and then hit into the empty goal. The game was decided after 56 minutes on a Schalke counter attack with the ball going through Huntelaar to Farfan for a cross to Meyer, who hit home into the right corner to push the advantage to 3-0. Hamburg nearly pulled a goal back with 11 minutes to play but Milan Badelj's hammer blasted off the right post from 19 yards.