Schalke 04 crushed the Cypriot club AEK Larnaca 5-0 on Thursday in their most decisive away win to date in the Europa League while Hanover 96 only managed a disappointing tie with FC Copenhagen, dashing their hopes of advancing to the top of Group B.

Schalke opened the match with a merciless offensive, scoring three goals in relatively quick succession before the break thanks to the work of Lewis Holtby, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Joel Matip.

Although Cyprus put in a worthy effort in the second half, Julian Draxler and Huntelaar racked up two more goals for Schalke during the match's end phase, putting the club in first place of Group J and giving it a strong position to advance.

"It was a fitting victory," said Horst Heldt, Schalke's sport director. "After the 3-0 lead we went into overdrive and were able to score five goals in total. You have to be very satisfied with that."

Hanover stalls

Despite taking the lead twice, Hanover faltered and only managed to pull off a 2-2 tie against Copenhagen in the end. Each time that Christian Pander and Sergio Pinto brought the hosts ahead, the Danes managed to hit back through Dame N'Doye and Cesar Santin.

"I thought that we did enough to win the game and it is bad not to get three points," Hanover's Pinto said.

Although Hanover is undefeated, it sits in second place in Group B behind Standard Liege and will have to fight to maintain its spot from Copenhagen.

"We always thought that there were three teams in the group that would fight out the top two places and that has happened," Hanover coach Mirko Slomka said. "Possibly we are not yet experienced enough."

Author: Spencer Kimball (dpa, SID)
Editor: Andy Valvur