Mandžukić steers Wolfsburg past Schalke

Mario Mandžukić struck twice as VfL Wolfsburg returned to winning ways with a 2-1 defeat of FC Schalke 04.

Beaten in their three previous Bundesliga outings, the 2008/09 champions stopped the rot despite falling behind to Raúl González's 13th-minute opener, the veteran Spanish forward hitting his third league goal this season. Mandžukić headed in to restore parity shortly after the half-hour and the Croatia forward then won the match for the hosts with a deflected second eight minutes from time.

There was a double in Cologne too as Timmy Simons weighed in with a pair of penalties in quick succession for 1. FC Nürnberg at 1. FC Köln. The Belgian midfielder buried his first on 31 minutes after Markus Feulner was felled by Pedro Geromel, and the same player then impeded Tomáš Pekhart to give Simons his second spot kick four minutes later.

Adil Chihi halved the deficit soon afterwards and Nürnberg then lost Pekhart to a 42nd-minute red card, but they held on for their third victory this season – helped by Köln losing Mišo Brečko the same way with a quarter of an hour remaining.