LEVERKUSEN - Manuel Friedrich grabbed a late winner to sink Schalke and move Bayer Leverkusen up to third in the Bundesliga.
Friedrich scored with five minutes remaining to deny a Schalke side whose frustrations boiled over in injury time when Jermaine Jones was shown a second yellow card and a subsequent red.
Leverkusen have lost one of their last 10 games and are now just five points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich.
The visitors nearly grabbed the lead in the sixth minute but Leverkusen defender Karim Haggui cleared Mladen Krstajic's shot off the line.
Schalke keeper Manuel Neuer failed to hold a shot by Bernd Schneider in the 11th minute but the defence cleared just in front of a lurking Sergej Barbarez.
Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling had a fine chance in the 34th minute as he ran onto a ball over Krstajic but Marcelo Bordon was able to clear.
Gonzalo Castro ought to have put Schalke ahead 14 minutes into the second half but fired wide of the target.
And the visitors wasted another wonderful opportunity nine minutes later, Rafinha putting Levan Kobiashvili clean through only for the Georgia international to miss the target.
Kiessling forced Neuer into a fine save after 76 minutes before the deadlock was finally broken with five minutes left.
The goal had an element of fortune about it, though, with Friedrich's cross from deep sailing over Neuer and into the net.
It was all too much for Jones who saw red in stoppage time.
