Franck Ribery produced a breathtaking performance to earn Bayern Munich a crucial away win at Schalke on Sunday. After Jefferson Farfan's fifth minute goal cancelled out Luca Toni's opener for Bayern, Ribery scored the game's winner on 31 minutes. The win moves Bayern to second place, level on 24 points with Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who drew with Karlsruhe. The Bavarian visitors broke the deadlock as early as the first minute. A lovely exchange of passes between Dutch midfielder Mark Van Bommel and Toni was ended with a sublime finish from the Italian international to hand Bayern the opener. Schalke responded quickly when Farfan took full advantage of Rafinha's pass to slot past Michael Rensing. The hosts controlled the game after Ribery's goal, and Rensing's heroics saved Bayern from conceding a second after saving another Farfan close effort. Just around the half hour mark, Ze Roberto had a brilliant run past the Schalke defense before squaring to the unguarded Ribery, who gave Bayern the lead with a left-footed shot. In the second half, Bayern focused on securing their lead by adopting a more defensive approach and they were successful in stopping Schalke's attacks. Jurgen Klinsmann's men could have scored a third through a counter attack which saw Ernesto Sosa through on Manuel Neuer, but the Argentine's shot clipped the post and went wide.
