Schalke edge out Cologne
Schalke bounced back from their shock cup exit to second division Mainz with a 1-0 victory over Cologne on Friday night.
The Royal Blues' poor season hit a new low in the week when they were knocked out of the DFB Pokal, but on Friday Jermaine Jones' first-half strike was enough to send them to within six points of Bundesliga leaders Hertha Berlin.
Cologne started the stronger, Nemanja Vucicevic testing keeper Manuel Neuer with a shot from distance and Milivoje Novakovic firing wide from similar distance.
Jones made the telling contribution in the 28th minute when Ivan Rakitic chested the ball into his path and the midfielder sent his shot from the edge of the area into the bottom-left corner.
Petit fired over the bar at the other end before Kevin Kuranyi wasted a chance to put the hosts two up three minutes before the break.
The striker's first effort was saved by keeper Faryd Mondragon and he fell on the follow-up, clearly knocking the ball into the net with his hand and the effort was disallowed.
Cologne had a monopoly on chances after the break but were denied by a combination of poor finishing and fine keeping from Neuer.
The young stopper punched Petit's fierce free-kick away 11 minutes after the restart.
Petit was involved again when his cross from the left was just missed at the far post by Youssef Mohamad.
Mohamad went close again three minutes into stoppage time when Neuer saved his first effort with his foot and then grabbed the ball before the Cologne man could knock it home at the second attempt.
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