Schalke secure points

In Champions League soccer, Schalke 04 pulled off a 2-0 win against Benfica Lisbon on Wednesday, while Werder Bremen suffered a 4-0 thrashing by defending champions Inter Milan.

Wednesday's results leave Schalke in second place in Group B and Bremen at the bottom of the Group A table.

Second half rescue

Late strikes at the Schalke Stadium gave the home team their first points in this season's Champions League, after losing their opening game to Olympique Lyon.

The hosts spent most of the game on the back foot, and struggled to break a dogged Benfica defense. Peruvian Jefferson Farfan scored Schalke's first goal 73 minutes in, with a shot fired across Benfica's goal from just inside the box.

With only five minutes left on the clock, Schalke's second goal came from Dutch striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who transferred from Inter Milan in August.

"I am very satisfied. That was a tough game, Benfica are a class team," said Schalke coach Felix Magath.

"We needed something to get into the game, but in the second half we took control and at the end deserved to win."

Eto'o leads Inter to victory

Meanwhile, at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Bremen were humbled by a hat-trick from Samuel Eto'o, whose performance brought his tally to 11 goals in nine games this season.

For the first 20 minutes, Bremen had several good chances at scoring. Yet the team failed to convert these opportunities into a goal.

Under pressure the Bremen defense struggled to effectively clear the ball. On 21 minutes, Inter Milan broke the deadlock as Eto'o converted a fumbled midfield ball by Daniel Jensen.

Eto'o added a second just minutes later after being set up by Brazilian defender Lucio. The Cameroonian also had an assist in the third as he sent Wesley Sneijder into space, who then lobbed the ball over goalkeeper Tim Wiese.

'Many presents'

Werder coach Thomas Schaaf said his team had thrown away the game in the first 45 minutes, by which point they trailed 3-0.

Inter were so confident of their dominance that coach Rafael Benitez replaced goalkeeper Cesar with rookie Luca Castellazzi at half-time.

Eto'o cemented his dominance in the game with a third goal nine minutes from time, taking the score to 4-0.

"We know that both Eto'o and Sniejder are great players and very dangerous. I don't know if it was their birthdays today but we gave them many presents anyway," said Schaaf.

Inter now top Group A with four points, leaving Bremen trailing at the bottom of the table.

Author: David Levitz (AFP/Reuters)

Editor: Catherine Bolsover