Berlin, April 25 (IANS) Mainz defender Stefan Bell sealed his brace within three minutes to extend Schalke' s winless streak at the curtain raiser on the 30th round of German Bundesliga on Friday.
Fifth-placed Schalke wait for their first win since six games as eleventh-placed Mainz cruised to a 2-0 victory on home soil, inflicting the "Royal Blues" the 10th loss of the season.
Schalke caught the better start as they worked out two promising opportunities through Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Joel Matip but both players lacked in accuracy from close range. Mainz dictated the pace on the pitch but still Schalke posed more threat with their fast breaks, Xinhua reported.
However, Mainz punished Schalke's wasteful chance conversion when defender Stefan Bell tapped in a corner from the goal-area, breaking the deadlock at the 28th minute. Bell was again in the thick of things three minutes later, as he capitalised on Schalke' s poor defence after corners, by wrapping up his brace and the 2-0 lead for his side.
After the restart, Schalke piled on the pressure but Mainz kept the visitors on the distance and remained dangerous on counter attacks. As a consequence, Mainz' Ja-Cheol Koo had the chance to kill the game but his follow-up shot from inside the penalty area just rattled the bar at the 70th minute.
Schalke showed a vital sign in the closing period when substitute Julian Draxler stroke the bar with his long-range effort. Nevertheless, Schalke' s late efforts remained fruitless as Mainz secured their eight win of the season to jump on the 8th place for now with 37 points, meanwhile Schalke stay on the 5th place with 42 points.
The following fixtures are scheduled for Saturday: Borussia Dortmund host Frankfurt, struggling Hannover face Hoffenheim, Stuttgart meet Freiburg, relegation threatened Hamburg see Augsburg, newly-promoted Cologne encounter third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, front-runners Bayern Munich clash Berlin.
