It wasn't too long ago that Schalke was dead and buried. They were manager-less and a complete mess, but a solid result in the Champions League at Galatasaray, a draw at Mainz and now a win this week has them back on track.
Borussia Dortmund also got back on track after falling to Bayern Munich in the DFB Pokal. Lesson: Bayern are really, really, really good.
In Robert Lewandowski's first match since it was announced that he would not sign a new contract with Dortmund, the striker went out and scored goals 13 and 14 on the season for his soon-to-be former club. It was a complete thrashing by BvB, who outshot Hannover 23-6 to stay one point ahead of Bayer Leverkusen for second place. Mohammed Abdellaoue did score for Hannover, but it was far too little to make this match competitive.
With Lewis Holtby gone, Schalke needed the phenomenal Julian Draxler to get even better and that is exactly what he has done. He terrorized Wolfsburg on Saturday, scoring a pair and adding an assist to lead Schalke at the Volkswagen Arena. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Jefferson Farfan added the other goals for Schalke, making Ivica Olic's tally for Wolfsburg insignificant.
Hamburg are right in the middle of the race for fourth place, but a great way to ruin those Champions League dreams is to draw at home to the worst team in the Bundesliga, which is exactly what they did on Saturday. Maximilian Beister answered Nikola Djurdjic's early opener, but Hamburg couldn't find another goal and had to settle for a bad draw at the Wolksparkstadion.
It looked like Vedad Ibisevic's 12th minutes penalty would be the winner, but a furious Bayer surge in the waning minutes turned what looked like a Stuttgart win into three points for the home side. Stefan Kiessling's 82nd minute drew Bayer level before Lars Bender netted the winner four minutes later to keep pace with BvB in the race for second.
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