BERLIN — Schalke climbed from sixth to third in the Bundesliga Sunday as Nabil Bentaleb scored on his comeback to seal their 2-0 victory at 10-man Bayer Leverkusen.
It was a sweet return for the ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, who was dropped from Schalke's squad a fortnight ago and told to improve his attitude.
Bentaleb's penalty just before the final whistle capped a deserved win for Schalke which had taken the lead with just 11 minutes gone in Leverkusen.
When Daniel Caligiuri found Guido Burgstaller with a pass from 40 meters, the Austrian striker superbly flicked the ball over a defender and hit the bottom left corner of the net from 15 meters.
Leverkusen had defensive midfielder Dominik Kohr was sent off for a second yellow card after just 38 minutes.
Schalke is level with second-placed Borussia Dortmund on 40 points — a massive 20 behind runaway league leader Bayern Munich.
The Bavarian giant was held to a goalless draw at home to Hertha Berlin Saturday, the first time it has failed to score a league goal at the Allianz Arena since May 2015.
Lazio jumps to third
Ciro Immobile and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic continued their goal scoring sprees to lift Lazio into third in Serie A with a 3-0 win over Sassuolo Sunday.
Both sides finished a bad-tempered clash with 10 men as Serb Milinkovic-Savic scored a brace, opening the score with a curler after seven minutes and adding a second after the break to bring his tally to 11 goals this season.
Immobile stepped up to slot home a penalty after half an hour to give him six goals in Lazio's last three games — 32 this season and a league leading 23 in Serie A.
The win saw Lazio overtake Inter Milan, which had moved third with a 2-0 win over bottom club Benevento in the San Siro Saturday, and dropped to fourth.
Sunday's Serie A game between champions Juventus and Atalanta in Turin was postponed because of heavy snow in northern Italy.
Six-time defending champions Juventus are a point behind leader Napoli which is in turn 14 points ahead of Lazio. — Agencies
