Raul scored his 400th career goal and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar netted twice as Schalke beat Wolfsburg 4-0 to stay in touch with the Bundesliga leaders .
Schalke crush Wolfsburg 4-0 to keep title bid on track
Raul scored his 400th career goal and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar netted twice as Schalke stayed in touch with the Bundesliga leaders thanks to a 4-0 victory over Wolfsburg and former coach Felix Magath.
Schalke were lucky not to have fallen behind after three minutes as Atsuto Uchida nearly deflected a cross by Petr Jiracek into his own goal.
But the hosts then grabbed the lead as Jefferson Farfan's corner was headed on by Joel Matip to the far left post where Raul easily struck home from three yards for his landmark moment.
Huntelaar doubled the advantage just five minutes later when a through-ball down the left side found Christian Fuchs for a cross into the middle for the Dutch striker, who coolly redirected the ball into the right corner.
Wolfsburg nearly pulled a goal back in the 17th minute but Felipe's shot went just inches left. And then Schalke goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall made a great save on Yohandry Orozco in the 23rd minute and Mario Mandzukic struck over the crossbar from 11 yards out.
Connected
Huntelaar missed a golden chance to double his tally and decide the game from the spot in the 36th minute after Felipe was ruled to have handled the ball. Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio deflected Huntelaar's spot-kick off the crossbar.
Matip, however, gave Schalke their 3-0 lead in the 49th minute on another set-piece with Kyriakos Papadopoulos heading a corner to Matip, who backheeled the ball past Benaglio.
Huntelaar connected a second time in the 72nd minute with a header from Fuchs' cross for his 18th Bundesliga goal - pulling him level at the top of the scoring list with Bayern's Mario Gomez.
Schalke's win halted a two-game winless streak and lifted them to 44 points - one behind third-placed Bayern Munich and still five points adrift of leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Wolfsburg, whose coach Magath was at the helm of Schalke from July 2009 until March 2011, have lost their last five away matches to remain on 27 points - seven points from a European spot in the table.
