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One of the most unique "derby weekends" in Western European leagues took place on Sunday in the German Bundesliga - in the Ruhr region derby, "Schalke" convincingly won against "Borussia", while in other matches of the day, "Wolfsburg" ended the match with a draw against the "Aachen" club.
In the Ruhr region derby, Gelsenkirchen's "Schalke" hosted the Dortmund "Borussia" team and the hosts started the game more successfully, playing for about half an hour already having a two-goal advantage - in the 15th minute, C.Pander sent the ball into the far corner of the goal with a beautiful penalty kick, followed by K.Kuranyi doubling the score with a head strike left unmarked at the gates after ten more minutes.
Immediately after the break, "Schalke" dominance became overwhelming, and P.Lovenkrands scored a goal after a pass from K.Kuranyi. Towards the end of the match, "Borussia" managed to soften the score a bit when A.Frei scored with a beautiful strike, stopping the ball in mid-air and sending it into Manuel Neuer's goal from 24 meters.
After the victory, "Schalke" once again equalized points with the "Werder" team and share the first position on the table until the end of the first round. The loss was further compounded for the Dortmund team by striker Nelson Valdez's injury.
The next match of the evening between "Wolfsburg" and "Aachen" ended with a victory for the away team. The winning goal for "Aachen" was scored with just over ten minutes left to play in the match. It is worth noting that "Wolfsburg" played with ten men for over an hour.
Sunday's statistics
1 - 2
50' [1 - 0] Alexander Madlung
72' [1 - 1] Laurentin Reghecampf
78' [1 - 2] Nico Herzig
28' Facundo Quiroga ("Wolfsburg") sent off the field
3 - 1
15' [1 - 0] Christian Pander
25' [2 - 0] Kevin Kuranyi
47' [3 - 0] Peter Lovenkrands
82' [3 - 1] Alexander Frei
Tournament table
