Schalke beat Stuttgart in German Bundesliga

Schalke overcame newly promoted Stuttgart 3-1 at the closer of the third round in Bundesliga football championships.

The "Royal Blues" provided two quick second-half goals and edged resilient Stuttgart 3-1 on Sunday to reap the second win of the season while Stuttgart suffered their second loss, reports Xinhua news agency.

Domenico Tedesco's men caught a bright start into the match as Orel Mangala felled Amine Harit inside the box allowing Nabil Bentaleb to convert a foul-play penalty for the opener in the fourth minute.

Despite the setback newly promoted Stuttgart turned up as Schalke retracted with the narrow lead. As a consequence, the visitors punished Schalke with the equalizer in the 40th minute when Chadrac Akolo volleyed home Josip Brekalo's cross to the near post.

After the restart, Schalke piled on the pressure and grabbed the 2-1 lead early on as Naldo headed home a free-kick cross into the box from Bastian Oczipka with 42 minutes played.

The hosts gained momentum and sealed the deal two minutes later after substitute Guido Burgstaller lobbed the ball over onrushing goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler to make it 3-1 on the scoreboards.

As the match progressed both sides remained offensively minded but yet they lacked in accuracy to score more goals in the closing period.

With the result, Schalke climbed on the 5th place meanwhile Stuttgart slipped to the 14th place of the Bundesliga standings.

"We have lost which annoys me of course. After the break we suffered two goals, which killed the game for us. We staged a good performance but made too many mistakes," Stuttgart's coach Hannes Wolf said.

--IANS

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