Dortmund coach Favre gives up on title after derby defeat to Schalke

Marco Reus was sent off as Dortmund suffered a critical blow to their title race hopes with a derby defeat on Saturday. (Photo: AFP/Ina Fassbender)

Reus was the first of two Dortmund players sent off in five second-half minutes as Schalke came from behind to hand Bayern Munich a golden opportunity to win their seventh straight league title.

League leaders Bayern can now pull four points clear at the top with three games to go with a win at relegation-threatened Nuremberg on Sunday.

Asked on Sky Germany whether the title race was over, Dortmund coach Favre said: "yes, of course".

Dortmund took the lead in style on 14 minutes, Jadon Sancho setting up Mario Goetze with a splendid chip over Schalke's back line.

However Schalke drew level just two minutes later, Daniel Caligiuri converting a contested penalty after a handball decision against Julian Weigl.

Favre railed against the decision, saying that new regulations on handball were "the biggest scandal in football".

"Football is making itself a laughing stock," said the usually reserved Swiss.

"What do they want players to do, cut their arms off?"

"The people who invented these rules, I don't know how they look at themselves in the mirror."

Two minutes later the visitors sent the Signal-Iduna-Park into shock as Salif Sane rose at a corner to put Schalke ahead.

Double disaster struck for Dortmund on the hour mark when captain Marco Reus was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Suat Serdar and Caligiuri curled the resulting free-kick into the top corner.

Marius Wolf then became the second Dortmund player sent off, once again for a reckless challenge on Serdar.

Axel Witsel pulled one back for Dortmund with five minutes remaining, but their hopes were crushed a moment later when Breel Embolo fired in Schalke's fourth.

FRESH HOPE FOR STUTTGART

Elsewhere, RB Leipzig secured Champions League qualification with a 2-1 win over Freiburg, while fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt were held to a 0-0 draw by Hertha Berlin.

Freiburg's Vicenzo Grifo became the first opposing player to score in Leipzig since February, cheekily converting a free-kick before goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi was ready.

Yet goals from Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg gave Leipzig a sixth straight win.

Werder Bremen's hopes of qualifying for Europe suffered a blow as they lost 4-1 at Fortuna Duesseldorf.

They are five points off the Europa league places after a defeat in which Benito Raman put the hosts ahead after just 55 seconds, and Kenan Karaman doubled the lead on 23 minutes.

A Max Kruse penalty restored hope for Werder, but second half goals from Rouwen Hennings and Markus Suttner sealed the home win.

At the other end of the table, Henrik Weydandt fired bottom club Hanover to a 1-0 win over Mainz.

Hanover's still have little hope of survival, though, after fellow strugglers Stuttgart beat top-four hopefuls Borussia Moenchengladbach in Saturday's late game.

Anastasios Donis's second half goal fired Stuttgart to their first victory in seven games in their first match under interim coach Nico Willig.

The three-time champions now sit six points clear of automatic relegation and six points adrift of safety in the relegation play-off place.

German Bundesliga results on Saturday:

Borussia Dortmund 2 Schalke 4

RB Leipzig 2 Freiburg 1

Eintracht Frankfurt 0 Hertha Berlin 0

Hanover 1 Mainz 0

Fortuna Duesseldorf 4 Werder Bremen 1

Stuttgart 1 Borussia Moenchengladbach 0