Schalke into Round of 16 after routing Lyon

Schalke 04 booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with an impressive 3-0 win over Lyon on Wednesday as they shook off their poor Bundesliga form to top Group B.

Although they are 15th in the Bundesliga, Schalke are now top of their Group with three wins and 10 points ahead of their last game against Benfica on December 12.

Despite the defeat Lyon will also go through to the last 16 as Benfica lost to Israeli side Hapoel Tel-Aviv in Israel and have a worse head to head record with the French side.

Schalke took control of the game from the whistle and raced into a 2-0 lead after just 20 minutes thanks to goals by Jefferson Farfan and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar before the Dutchman completed the rout with an 89th-minute goal.

The Royal Blues went ahead when Spanish striker Raul — who scored a hat-trick in Schalke’s 4-0 Bundesliga hammering of Bremen last Saturday — fed Farfan and the Peru star fired home from 11 metres out.

With the hosts attacking in waves, Huntelaar netted his tenth goal of the season for Schalke in all competitions since his transfer from AC Milan when he was fed on the edge of the area and rifled his shot in on 20 minutes.

Farfan was booked for diving over Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris on 30 minutes as Schalke screamed for a penalty and Huntelaar fired over just before the half time break.

Having already lost captain and central defender Cris for the trip to Gelsenkirchen with damaged knee ligaments, Lyon also look to have lost Yoann Gourcuff for a few weeks as the midfielder was stretchered off on 58 minutes.

Huntelaar added his second of the game in the dying stages when a long ball from the right flank found him in the penalty area and he held off two defenders before shooting at Lloris, who managed to get a glove to the ball.

The French goalkeeper’s efforts were in vain as the ball looped over his head and into the goal to complete the comprehensive defeat.