Bayern win keeps title dreams alive

Bayern Munich's midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic(R) fights for the ball against Schalke's defender Mladen Krstajic during their Bundesliga football match at the Allianz Arena stadium in Munich, southern Germany. Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said his side thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win over league-leaders Schalke 04 on Saturday which keeps them in the chase for a 21st Budesliga title.

Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said his side thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win over league-leaders Schalke 04 on Saturday which keeps them in the chase for a 21st Budesliga title.

This was a big win for the German giants who have closed the gap behind Schalke to just six points but Munich are still in fourth place - one off the Champions League spot Hitzfeld has demanded they must achieve.

Goals by Dutch striker Roy Maakay and Bosnian midfielder Hasan Salihamidzic sealed the win for Bayern - who take on AC Milan in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday - just as Schalke look to be faltering.

"We deserved the win because we created more chances and we could have won by a few more," said Hitzfeld.

"The defence was very stable and the win puts us in a good position. After 20 minutes, I thought we gave Schalke too much respect and time on the ball, but we organised ourselves well in the second-half and made life hard for them.

Bayern Munich's Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel(L) challenges Schalke's striker Kevin Kuranyi during their Bundesliga football match at the Allianz Arena stadium in Munich, southern Germany. Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said his side thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win over league-leaders Schalke 04 on Saturday which keeps them in the chase for a 21st Budesliga title.

"The three points give us some confidence, but we must concentrate now on beating Milan this week."

The defeat leaves Schalke just two points ahead of second-placed Werder Bremen - who missed the chance to go level with a 0-0 draw at Energie Cottbus - and Schalke coach Mirko Slomka was far from happy with his side's performance.

"We were poor in the first-half," he said.

"The early goal against us threw us off our game plan and we created too few chances, so Bayern deserve the win."

Bayern took the lead after just three minutes when a well-timed pass in from the left from Bastian Schweinsteiger to Maakay gave the Dutchman just enough time to score his 100th goal for Bayern past Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer.

Salihamidzic made the result safe with lethal finishing to smash defender Lucio's pass past Neuer on 78 minutes.

Stuttgart's striker Cacau(L) fights for the ball against Aachen's defender Moses Sichone during their Bundesliga football match at the Gottlieb-Daimler stadium in Stuttgart, southern Germany. Stuttgart won the match 3-1.

Elsewhere, third-placed Stuttgart VfB took an early lead at home to Alemannia Aachen when Swiss striker Marco Streller powered his header just past the despairing finger tips of diving goalkeeper Stephan Straub after 29 minutes.

Aachen got back on level terms after the break when Zambian defender Moses Sichone put his header just out of reach of Stuttgart's goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand to make it 1-1 on 59 minutes.

But Stuttgart made sure of the win as first Benjamin Lauth chipped the keeper on 75 minutes before Brazilian striker Cacau scored an almost identical goal in the 84th minute to seal the 3-1 victory.

Stuttgart are now just two points behind Bremen, four points away from leaders Schalke and they hope to welcome back star striker Mario Gomez from a knee injury soon.

Stuttgart coach Armin Veh said: "We were missing a few of our first-choice players, but we did the basics well and I'm pretty happy with the performance in general."

Mainz' midfielder Fabian Gerber(C) is challenged by Leverkusen's striker Sergej Barbarez(L) at the Bruchwegstadion in Mainz, during their Bundesliga 27th day football match. Leverkusen won the match 3-1.

Eintracht Frankfurt defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos gave his side an early 1-0 lead over bottom-side Borussia Moenchengladbach after 11 minutes, but battling Borussia picked up a priceless point thanks to Federico Insua.

The draw keeps them bottom, but they are now only four points from safety.

Czech midfielder Tomas Galasek volleyed Nuremberg into an early lead at home to Hertha Berlin in the 15th minute and the home side extended their lead when midfielder Marco Engelhardt drove home his shot eight metres out on the hour.

Berlin gave themselves a life-line when Argentinian striker Christian Gimenez scored on 69 minutes, but still went down 2-1. Two quick goals fired Bayer Leverkusen into an early 2-0 lead away at Mainz 05.

After German international midfielder Bernd Schneider made a huge dent in the Mainz defence, his inch-perfect pass to Sergej Barbarez allowed the Bosnian striker to headed his shot home on 42 minutes.

Bremen's midfielder Torsten Frings(L) heads for the ball against Cottbus' striker Sergiu Radu during their Bundesliga football match at the Stadion der Freundschaft in Cottbus, eastern Germany. The match ended in a 0-0 draw.

And the 25-year-old scored again three minutes later on the stroke of half-time when he followed a shot up from Simon Rolfes - fresh from making his debut for Germany in midweek - to slide the ball home.

Schneider smashed his free-kick past Mainz keeper Dino Wache on 52 minutes before Mainz grabbed a consolation goal through Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan with 15 minutes to go to make it 3-1.

Arminia Bielfeld lifted themselves out of the relegation zone on Friday night with a 1-0 win over Borussia Dortmund who took their place in the bottom three.