Schalke's title hopes over

Hasan Salihamidzic, Claudio Pizarro and Roy Makaay led a concerted Bayern effort against the team with the league's best record since the winter break.

Bayern, which restored its six-point lead in the league, was fighting a three-match winless streak which had allowed Hamburger SV to close to three points Saturday.

After a dismal first half controlled by two of the league's top defences, Bayern charged out of the locker-room to hand third-place Schalke its first Bundesliga loss under coach Mirko Slomka, who is 9-2-1 since he took over.

"The last matches had hurt our self-confidence, you could see that. We were nervous at first," Bayern coach Felix Magath said. "But the 1-0 freed us up and I think we played a pretty good match after that."

Bayern, cheered on by 60,000 at its Allianz Arena, took advantage of its first scoring chance. In the 48th minute, an unmarked Salihamidzic headed in Willie Sagnol's free kick as Schalke defender Marcelo Bordon arrived a step late to cover for someone's mistake.

In the 56th minute, Pizarro went through on a pass by Makaay and coolly chipped past the goialkeeper. When Schalke defender Mladen Krstajic tried to dribble the ball in the 89th, Makaay stole it for an easy third goal.

Schalke, after a good first 15 minutes, faded three days after reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

"The longer the match went, the more we lost our way. Maybe we just weren't fresh," Schalke midfielder Fabian Ernst said.

Also Sunday, Hertha Berlin edged Bielefeld 1-0 to take sixth place.

On Saturday, it was: Hannover 96 1, FC Cologne 0; Eintracht Frankfurt 5, Duisburg 2; Wolfsburg 0, Hamburger SV 1; Borussia Dortmund 2, Kaiserslautern 1; FC Nuremberg 3, Werder Bremen 1; Borussia Moenchengladbach 1, Stuttgart 1; and Bayer Leverkusen 1, Mainz 0