Jermaine Jones scored in the first half as Schalke 04 beat Cologne 1-0 at home on Friday and relieved a bit of the pressure on them in the Bundesliga.
Jones struck the only goal in the 28th minute as Schalke jumped to sixth place in the standings with 37 points from 23 matches.
After a second straight win and a third in five matches, Schalke were just two points behind Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg.
PHOTO: AP
“We need to win some games. We just need to stay together and show everyone that we are a group,” Jones said. “We can’t talk about a streak yet. Today, this is three points. If we win our next game, then we can start talking about a streak.”
IMPORTANT WIN
Schalke manager Andreas Mueller said: “This was a very important win for the team. It was the first step in the right direction.”
Cologne were pressured early on and could not get out of their half.
Schalke did not create many opportunities until they grabbed the lead shortly before the half-hour mark.
EXCELLENT PASS
Vicente Sanchez played an excellent back-heel pass over two Cologne defenders to Ivan Rakitic, who laid the ball on for Jones, whose blast from the edge of the area went into the lower left corner of the net.
Cologne, who are 10th in the league with 29 points, had a fine chance to equalize just after the hour mark. A free-kick from the left was headed back by Milivoje Novakovic to the far post and Youssef Mohamad’s shot went just centimeters wide.
Mohamad missed one final opportunity deep into injury-time when Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made a superb stop.
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