Schalke took over the provisional lead in the Bundesliga with a 1-0
home victory over Mainz thanks to Jefferson Farfan's early goal on
Friday.
Farfan scored after 12 minutes to give Schalke its
Bundesliga-best 10th win of the season, and Felix Magath's team 34
points from 17 matches.
The Blues have a two-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen, which
can secure the symbolic fall champion title - winner of the
season's first half - with a victory on Saturday against Borussia
Moenchengladbach.
Despite a third straight win, Magath wasn't entirely
satisfied.
"We made things tough for them," he said. "It would have been
good to use our chances to make things less exciting at the end.
After such a strong start, we had to have scored another goal. We
are missing the killer instinct."
Mainz remained on 24 points for eighth place. And despite
five games without a victory Thomas Tuchel's men are the best
promoted side in the league after the first half of the
season.
"We played our worst game of the season and we deserved to
lose. The entire team had a bad day," Mainz captain Tim Hoogland
said. "This was just a bad game for us. And it's disappointing to
go into the winter break with such a performance."
Schalke nearly pulled ahead at home after 10 minutes but Ivan
Rakitic sent his header over the bar.
Farfan, however, passed in from the right wing and the ball
landed at 19-year-old Lewis Holtby, who returned ball into the area
to a streaking Farfan to sneak the ball around goalkeeper Heinz
Muller.
Heiko Westermann missed a golden chance to double the
advantage after 20 minutes. Rakitic's corner kick struck the
crossbar a minute later. And Westermann again was just off-target
after 65 minutes.
And Muller made a final save in the final minute to keep his
team in the game.
