Brazilian forward Ailton scored his sixth goal Sunday to lift Schalke past rival Borussia Dortmund 1-0 and even with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga standings.
Ailton slipped behind a defender in the 17th minute and sidefooted a through pass between goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller's legs to decide the derby between two teams that play just 40km apart.
Schalke is now being touted as Bayern's main challenger for the Bundesliga title.
"I don't mind the players talking about the title -- what do you think I want?" Rangnick said. "Stuttgart plays Bayern next week. Who's to say we won't be on top then?"
Schalke moved to 33 points in 16 rounds, the same as Bayern, although the Bavarians have a big edge in goal difference. Stuttgart is at 30 in the tight title race with next weekend the final round before the Bundesliga takes a two-month winter break.
Schalke, impressive before the break, was lucky to survive a shaky second half against crisis-ridden Dortmund.
Dortmund wasted a big chance in the 56th minute as Schalke's Marcelo Bordon headed clear following a bobble from goalkeeper Frank Rost, which Czech forward Jan Koller pounced upon. Another attempt cracked off the crossbar.
Dortmund, Germany's second biggest club and the 1997 Champions Cup winner, fell to 14th and in a relegation battle during a year when it is also struggling financially.
Schalke, which spent the most money on new players in the league, has gotten lucky on almost all its new acquisitions.
Ailton, last year's scoring leader with 28 goals at Werder Bremen, has been rounding into form, while Kaiserslautern castoff Lincoln has drawn praise as the team's playmaker. Two highly respected defenders, Bremen's Mladen Krstajic and Stuttgart's Marcelo Bordon, have also shored up the defense.
In Sunday's second match, Kaiserslautern beat Mainz 05 2-0 behind a score from Kamil Kosowski and an own-goal from Mathias Abel.
Nineteen-year-old Salomon Kalou scored with four minutes remaining to give Feyenoord Rotterdam a 2-1 victory over NEC Nijmegen, keeping it in fourth place in the Dutch first division, 11 points behind Eredivisie leader PSV Eindhoven.
PSV beat De Graafschap Doetinchem 4-0 on Saturday for its fifth straight victory and 12th straight shutout, improving to 41 points, five clear of AZ Alkmaar, who is in 2nd place. Alkmaar kept pace with PSV, beating ADO The Hague 2-0 with goals from Martijn Meerdink and substitute striker Ali Elkhatabi.
Heerenveen remained in fifth, five back of Feyenoord, despite a 2-2 draw in Tilburg. Defender Jos van Nieuwstadt equalized two minutes into injury time for Willem II after Heerenveen's Finnish fullback Hannu Haarala was ejected for a second yellow card in the 89th minute.
And Vitesse Arnhem climbed into sixth, a point behind Heerenveen, with a 2-1 victory over FC Utrecht on a last-minute free-kick winner by Theo Janssen.
Ajax remained in third, 10 points behind PSV, with Friday's 2-1 victory over RKC Waalwijk. In other games Saturday, Roda JC beat Groningen 5-1, RBC Roosendaal drew 0-0 with NAC Breda and FC Twente beat Den Bosch 4-0.
Real Madrid played without four regulars and settled for a 0-0 draw with Villarreal, leaving it nine points behind Spanish league leader FC Barcelona after 14 games.
Already without Zinedine Zidane who was injured and suspended Luis Figo, Madrid coach Mariano Garcia Remon rested Raul Gonzalez and Roberto Carlos heading into tomorrow's Champions League match against AS Roma. The result was a disappointing performance that left Madrid in second but dropped it further behind their front-running rival.
Spanish striker Raul Tamudo's goal earned Espanyol a 1-0 victory over Zaragoza, while Brazilian forward Julio Baptista scored his sixth goal of the season in Sevilla's 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.
Charlton beat London rival Crystal Palace 1-0 with an injury time winner from substitute Dennis Rommedahl.
The win was Charlton's second away win of the season and lifted the club three places to 10th. Charlton goalkeeper Dean Kiely saved a 57th-minute penalty from Andy Johnson.
Aki Riihilahti hit the bar for Palace and Jerome Thomas and Matt Holland went close for Charlton.
Rangers squandered the chance to regain the top spot of the Scottish Premier League by drawing 1-1 with Inverness Caledonian.
Inverness took the lead through Graham Bayne after three minutes, with Dado Prso equalizing for Rangers six minutes into the second half.
Celtic has 41 points, Rangers 40, Aberdeen 34 and Hibernian 27.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the match-winning goal in the 75th minute to help Juventus rebound from an early deficit and beat Lazio 2-1, restoring its four-point lead atop the Italian league.
AC Milan had cut Juve's advantage to one point with a 2-1 comeback victory at Parma on Saturday.
Macedonian striker Goran Pandev put Lazio in the lead in the 11th minute at Stadio delle Alpi, beating three defenders, including Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram, before launching an accurate angled shot.
In the 40th minute, Juve's new Uruguayan midfielder Ruben Olivera converted a header off a pass from Mauro Camoranesi.
Ibrahimovic, who bounced a header off the crossbar eight minutes in, sealed the match with a deflection on a play largely created by attacking midfielder Olivier Kapo of France.
Liedson Muniz scored twice to lead Sporting over next-to-last placed Academica 3-2, moving it into second place and within a point of Portuguese league leader Porto.
The victory gave Sporting 24 points, moving it past Boavista and right behind Porto, which lost 1-0 to Beira Mar on Friday.
Soren Berg scored a late goal to give OB Odense a 2-1 win over Brann of Norway in the Royal League.
It was the first loss in round-robin play for the Norwegian Cup champions, but they kept the lead in Group 3 with six points.
Chris Sorensen also scored for OB at home, netting a free kick from 25m early in the match. Bengt Saternes, who had a hat trick in the Norwegian Cup final last month, headed in the equalizer for Brann later in the first half. The top two teams in each group advance to the second round.
In an all-Danish Group 2 match, FC Copenhagen drew 1-1 with Brondby. Thomas Kahlenberg scored for Copenhagen just before halftime, but Elrio van Heerden replied for Brondby in the 78th before 21,763 fans, the biggest crowd of the day.
In Group 1, Swedish striker Fredrik Berglund scored two goals and set up a third for Jess Thorup as Esbjerg blanked Swedish Cup champion Djurgarden 3-0 at Rasunda Stadium in Stockholm.
Top division club La Louviere said yesterday it would appeal against a soccer federation ruling which allowed a defeat against Anderlecht to stand even though one goal was scored with a ball which burst in mid-air.
Anderlecht beat La Louviere 2-1 last month, but was only able to claw back into the game when midfielder Walter Baseggio scored with a thunderous drive which literally kicked the air out of the ball.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
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