Former German international striker Kevin Kuranyi grabbed a 55th-minute winner to fire Schalke 04 back to the top of the Bundesliga on Friday in a 2-1 win over Stuttgart.
The victory gave Schalke a one-point lead over Bayern Munich who face relegation-threatened Freiburg on Saturday.
It was Schalke’s third successive win and their eighth at home this season while Kuranyi’s timely strike was his 14th of the campaign.
The Ruhr-based side opened the scoring just after the break through Edu but Serdar Tasci took advantage of a Schalke defensive mix-up to level for Stuttgart in the 50th minute.
“This is an important victory, but we can’t rest on our laurels,” said Kuranyi.
“There are very important matches coming up against Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich.”
Schalke, coached by Felix Magath, are trying to win a first league title since 1958 while Stuttgart suffered only their second defeat since former Tottenham boss Christian Gross took over in December.
“We are the leaders, but that’s not the most important thing,” said Magath.
“We will talk about our ambitions after our match against Bayern, who are the title favourites, on April 3,” added Magath, who led Wolfsburg to the championship last season.
