Schalke take second as Hamburg slip up

FC Schalke 04 capitalised on Hamburger SV's loss at champions VfB Stuttgart to move into second place in the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win against FC Hansa Rostock.

Schalke jump Hamburg
Halil Altıntop's strike seven minutes after half-time gave the Gelsenkirchen side the three points at the Arena AufSchalke and draw them to within six points of leaders FC Bayern München. Roberto Hilbert's 20th-minute effort was enough for Stuttgart to defeat Hamburg and climb above Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who play BV Borussia Dortmund on Sunday. Werder Bremen joined Hamburg on 47 points from 27 games after an early Markus Rosenberg goal and Tim Borowski's 72nd-minute strike gave them a 2-1 win at Hertha BSC Berlin after André Lima had equalised for the home side.

Nürnberg off bottom
Elsewhere, 1. FC Nürnberg lifted themselves off the bottom of the table with a 3-1 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt. After going behind to Michael Fink's third-minute strike, Angelos Charisteas replied 15 minutes later before Róbert Vittek and Zvjezdan Misimović struck at the start and end of the second half. However, Nürnberg only rose one place after DSC Arminia Bielefeld defeated Karlsruher SC with a last-minute Leonidas Kampantais effort. MSV Duisburg, beaten 1-0 at home by FC Energie Cottbus on Friday, are now bottom. In Saturday's other game, VfL Wolfsburg climbed into seventh after two goals from Ashkan Dejagah and one from Marcelinho secured a 3-2 success against Hannover 96.