New on the Bench
February 3, 2007
Danish striker Peter Loevenkrands was the hero for his side as he scored both goals in the victory that saw Schalke move three points clear of Bremen to 45 points. VfB Stuttgart, who won 1-0 at Borussia Dortmund in Sunday's other match are third.
Schalke dominated the first half and deservedly went ahead in the 20th minute through Loevenkrands' acrobatic bicycle kick from a Lincoln cross.
On the hour Werder coach Thomas Schaaf brought on three offensive players in Aaron Hunt, Markus Rosenberg and Jurica Vranjes, but they could not find a way through a compact Schalke defense.
Instead, it was Loevenkrands who caught Bremen on a counter attack in the 73rd minute after being set up by Kevin Kuranyi.
Stuttgart set sights on European tournaments
In Sunday's other match, third-placed VfB Stuttgart closed the gap on Bremen to four points with a 1-0 victory at Borussia Dortmund.
Mario Gomez, who has received a first call-up into the Germany side for Wednesday's international friendly against Switzerland scored with a header on the hour.
Mixed results for new coaches
Jos Luhukay proved to have more luck with Gladbach than a fed-up Jupp Heynckes, who left the team three days ago after booking 12 matches without a win, leading his new side won 2-0 at Arminia Bielefeld, but Huub Stevens and Otmar Hitzfeld were both given an example of what sent their predecessors at Hamburg and Bayern packing.
Hamburg gave up an injury time goal to lose their share of the spoils in a 2-1 loss at Hertha Berlin, and Bayern seemed like they never had a chance, conceding three goals in a shutout to Nuremberg.
VfL Wolfsburg ended a miserable run of eight games without a win by beating a 10-man Bayer Leverkusen 3-2, while the matches between Eintracht Frankfurt and Mainz 05 and Energie Cottbus and VfL Bochum ended goalless.
Alemania Aachen slipped into the relegation zone with a 4-1 defeat at home to Hanover 96, who have won their last two matches and scored eight goals in the process.
Chavdar Yankov, Jan Rosenthal, Szabolcs Huszti and Jiri Stajner scored for the visitors, while Laurentiu Reghecampf scored for Aachen.
Hamburg support entire table
In Berlin the home side missed an early penalty and then went behind in the 33rd minute as Alexander Laas found the back of the net with a shot from 15 metres that slipped under the body of goalkeeper Christian Fiedler.
The second half belonged to the Hertha, but their fans had to wait until the 78th minute when captain Arne Friedrich scored with a header from a freekick.
Substitute Mineiro, who came on in the 69th minute for his first Bundesliga game, scored with a long-range effort two minutes into injury time to deny Hamburg a deserved point.
On Friday Bayern Munich lost a southern German derby at Nuremberg 3-0 and fell. The result sees Bayern remain in fourth place on 34 points, while Nuremberg move two places to fifth with 30 points.