Champions League: Schalke take big step towards knockouts

Schalke 2-0 Galatasaray
(Burgstaller 4', Uth 57')

Schalke's quiet resurgance continued with a strong win at home against the side they drew a blank with away from home last time out in the Champions League. With two games left in the group stage, the result puts them in a strong position to reach the knockout rounds.

Schalke got off to a flyer. Guido Burgstaller, returning to the starting line-up, took advantage of an early mistake by Fernando Muslera to give the home side the lead. The Galatasaray keeper couldn't hold on to the ball near the left-hand side of his box, Burgstaller did enough to win it and then kept his head to find the empty net from a tricky angle.

Ralf Fährmann was back in the squad, but Alexander Nübel kept his spot as starting keeper and made a good save to keep Schalke ahead when he denied Henry Onyekuru.

Amine Harit blazed over the in the box and Alessandro Schöpf couldn't finish a counterattack as Schalke pressed for a second their strong start warranted. The game remained end-to-end though, and Garry Rodrigues fired wide for the visitors after getting behind Schalke's defense.

Sebastian Rudy clipped the post and Muslera made a strong, diving save to deny Burgstaller a second as Domenico Tedesco's side finished the half unfortunate to lead by just one.

Just before the hour mark, Schalke finally did get a second when Mark Uth finished off another strong counterattack. Daniel Caligiuri sent through Burgstaller with a brilliant delivery and the striker spotted Uth, who controlled the ball in the box before lashing home.

Schalke could have added a third, but in the end it mattered not. Schalke got the win and delivered a performance to boot.

Champions League Results:

Group A:

Atletico Madrid 2-0 Borussia Dortmund

Monaco 0-4 Club Brugge

Group B:

Inter Milan 1-1 Barcelona

Tottenham 2-1 PSV

Group C:

Red Star Belgrade 2-0 Liverpool

Napoli 1-1 PSG

Group D:

Schalke 2-0 Galatasaray

Porto 4-1 Lokomotiv Moscow