Schalke 04 3 - 2 Hamburger: Schalke beat 10-man Hamburg to keep Champions League hopes alive

Posted Thursday, March 03, 2016 by PA

Schalke bounced back from some recent poor results with a dominant performance and 3-2 win over 10-man Hamburg which keeps their hopes alive of qualifying for the Champions League next season.

Hamburg could hardly have imagined making a better start to the game with Roman Neustadter gifting them the lead in the fourth minute, as he misjudged a long ball forward and allowed Nicolai Muller to get in behind him and divert the ball past Ralf Fahrmann.

Schalke hit back and had it not been for some heroics from Hamburg goalkeeper Rene Adler, the hosts would have levelled sooner than they actually did.

Max Meyer finally brought the Royal Blues back on terms in the 38th minute with a shot from almost 25 yards out before Hamburg were reduced to 10 men with Johan Djourou picking up a second yellow card on the stroke of half-time.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar put Schalke in front midway through the second half when he headed in a cross from Alessandro Schopf, who added the third with a deflected shot in the 77th minute.

Gojko Kacar pulled one back for Hamburg in stoppage time but it was too little, too late for the northern Germany side.