Hamburg crushed Schalke 04 2-1 in an away match on Sunday, rekindling their urge of title race in German Bundesliga.

Peruvian international Jose Paolo Guerrero bagged two goals for Hamburg within 4 minutes in the second half, cutting the club's deficit to Bundesliga leaders Berlin Hertha to just one point.

Thanks to the victory, Hamburg, with 48 points in the pocket, have the same points with reigning champions Bayern Munich.

The defeat leaves Schalke 04, who have yet to replace sacked general manager Andreas Mueller, in eighth place on 37 points and is certain to fuel speculation about the future of coach Fred Rutten.

Hamburg had started the better team, but quality football was almost non-existent and for first 15 minutes nothing happened.

In most cases, Guerrero was on his own up front and had to drop deep to receive the ball. That didn't stop him working his socks off for the good of the team.

Across the halfway line, Schalke's danger duo of Kuranyi and Farfan were almost invisible, until the 27th minute, as they duped the Hamburg defence with a clever one two, only to see Farfan's shot blocked.

The goals all came inside the final 20 minutes. First Guerrero capitalized on a mistake by Neuer, who completely missed a cross 20 minutes from time.

Guerrero completed his second double of the week when he got at the end of a neat combination four minutes later to fire home Marcell Jansen's low cross from close range.

It looked like game over at that point in time, but Hamburg slackened their grip on the game as Jefferson Farfan scored a consolation goal from Kevin Kuranyi's cross ten minutes from time, but it was too late for Schalke.

Source:Xinhua