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Grafite 'trick puts Wolfsburg second in Germany

Source: Agencies | March 15, 2009, Sunday | Print Edition

BRAZILIAN striker Grafite scored a hat-trick to help steer VfL Wolfsburg to an exciting 4-3 home win over Schalke 04 on Friday, moving the team within a point of German Bundesliga leader Hertha Berlin.

Wolfsburg, which has moved up to provisional second place, extended its winning run to six matches with a hard-fought victory that left crisis-hit Schalke with more problems.

Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath played down his team's title hopes saying it was not ready. "You could see we are not candidates for the title. When you lead 3-1 and 4-2 you should not allow yourself to get into trouble," the former Bayern Munich boss told reporters.

The game in Wolfsburg was a showdown of the Bundesliga's top defense in Schalke (21 goals allowed) against the third-best offense in Wolfsburg (46 goals scored).

Eighth-placed Schalke, which sacked general manager Andreas Mueller while retaining coach Fred Rutten this week, grabbed the lead after nine minutes when Heiko Westermann's dipping shot from the edge of the box sneaked in off the far post. But from then on Rutten had nothing to smile about with Schalke constantly on the backfoot.

Grafite, who has now scored 17 league goals this season, equalized in the 25th with a penalty he was awarded after being brought down by Mladen Krstajic.

He then turned provider and set up striker Edin Dzeko's 13th Bundesliga goal of the season with a well-timed cross which the Bosnian fired home at the far post just before the break.

Grafite scored again from close range to make it 3-1 in the 74th before Jermaine Jones pulled one back for the visitors two minutes later.

Grafite sealed the points for Wolfsburg six minutes from time when he slid the ball into the net from close range.

Kevin Kuranyi scored Schalke's third deep into stoppage time but its defeat increases the pressure on Rutten to salvage at least a European spot from a disappointing season.

Rutten thought his team deserved at least a point, saying: "When you score three goals in an away match then you should normally come back with something".

Yesterday, Hertha was hosting seventh-placed Bayer Leverkusen, which is level on 37 points with Schalke. Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim, joint third on 42 points, visit VfL Bochum and Eintracht Frankfurt, respectively.



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