Gomez absent as the strikers seal the points

For the match of the night at Schalke's Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Matthieu Delpierre returned from suspension to take his place in the starting eleven, at the expense of Georg Niedermeier, but the big surprise in Markus Babbel's first selection was the absence of Mario Gomez. The German international is suffering with an adductor problem and failed to even make the bench. Last weekend's four goal hero was replaced by Ciprian Marica.
It was an open affair from the outset, with Timo Gebhart and Ciprian Marica coming close at one end and Levan Kobiashvili having a go at the other early on, but with just over a quarter hour played, the visitors from Stuttgart were rewarded for their early determination. Mladen Krstajic invited Cacau to win the ball from him with some unorthodox defending, to which the Brazilian gladly obliged and then hammered the ball into the top right corner from all of twenty meters out - 0-1 in VfB's favour.
The comfort of a one goal lead didn't always appear to sit well with VfB, who allowed Schalke to put them under pressure and force defensive errors all too easily, but Babbel's men did continue to look dangerous on the break. Six minutes before the break though, referee Michael Kempter considered Christian Träsch's clearance away from Farfan to be dangerous play and awarded a free-kick to the home side on the edge of the VfB area. Ivan Rakitic stepped up and expertly bent the dead-ball over the wall and past Jens Lehmann to draw his side back level going into the break - 1-1!

Marica sinks Schalke

The hosts made the brighter start in the second period and pushed forward in determined search of a goal to turn the tie on its head. VfB struggled at times and their passiveness forced Sami Khedira into making a tactical foul which cost

him his fifth yellow card of the season and put's him out of this weekend's clash with Energie Cottbus. Just as the ‘Royal-Blues' appeared to be getting a firm grasp on the game, Babbel's men struck a paralysing blow. With almost an hour on the clock, Thomas Hitzlsperger dove in a shot from outside the box, which proved too hot for Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer to handle and the ball fell kindly for Ciprian Marica to pounce on and poke home in true goal-poachers manner - 1-2 (57'). Just seconds after taking the lead again, VfB thought they should have had a penalty when Gebhart went tumbling in the box, but the referee was unimpressed and waved the appeals away. The home side went in desperate search of a second equaliser, and came agonisingly close when Lehmann misjudged a cross and allowed ex-VfB man Kevin Kuranyi to get a header in but, luckily for the Stuttgart keeper, the ball struck the post and Ludovic Magnin was able to clear the danger. For all of Schalke's efforts, on the night they were to find no way past a very hard working VfB side that hung on to secure all three points and keep their title dreams alive.

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