Bundesliga: Schalke 5 Hannover 4

19 January 2013 00:17

Schalke edged Hannover 5-4 in a nine-goal thriller at the Veltins Arena in Friday's Bundesliga action.

The two sides played out one of the games of the season as Schalke ended a six-match winless streak in the league in style.

After 44 goalless minutes, Peruvian attacker Jefferson Farfan opened the scoring to the delight of over 60,000 fans in Gelsenkirchen.

What was to follow was astounding, with the impressive Lewis Holtby – who will join English Premier League outfit Tottenham at the end of the season – setting up Schalke's second goal just four minutes into the second half.

Julian Draxler was the scorer but Hannover produced a quick response as Sergio Pinto and Szabolcs Huszti levelled the scores before the hour-mark.

Holtby was again the provider for Marco Hoger on 64 minutes and just after Christian Marica produced a neat finish to give Schalke a 4-2 lead.

Again Hannover would not lie down though and Hungarian Huszti slammed the ball into the roof of the net from close range with 22 minutes left to set up an exciting finish.

Holtby capped off an excellent performance with a tap-in on a quick counter-attack on 88 minutes but there was still time for former Manchester United striker Mame Biram Diouf to score for Hannover.

Diouf netted a sublime bicycle kick from the edge of the penalty area but his goal – scored in the second minute of stoppage time in the second half – came too late as Schalke celebrated a famous victory.