Schalke vs. Freiburg: Final score 1-3, Freiburg smash and grab all three points

Freiburg went to the Veltins Arena and beat Schalke 3-1 to knock the home side out of the top six heading into the winter break. Freiburg are now in fifth place.

At the sound of the opening whistle, Schalke took control of the match. Wave after wave of attack was thrown at the Freiburg goal, but Oliver Baumann and his defense did well to repel the attacks.

Schalke grabbed the lead after 20 minutes. Lewis Holtby and Jefferson Farfan beat the offside trap and went at Bauman. Holtby dished to Farfan at the last second, and the Peruvian put his shot into the top of the net to give Schalke the 1-0 lead.

At this point in the match, the switch was flipped. From here on out, the rest of the match belonged to Freiburg.

By the 32nd minute, Freiburg were leading after goals from Jan Rosenthal and Jonathan Schmid. Freiburg broke out down the flank with Max Kruse leading the charge. He played a long pass to Rosenthal who beat Timo Hildebrand to make it 1-1. Six minutes later, Schmid made it 2-1 converting a pass from Rosenthal.The halftime whistle was a welcome sound to home side.

The second half was much like the first with Schalke's defense all over the place and just playing awful. Freiburg grabbed a third goal when Daniel Caligiuri played Rosenthal in over the top. The forward left no doubt and smashed it past Hildebrand for the 3-1 lead.

It seemed that Schalke were thrown a lifeline in the 80th minute when Rosenthal was sent off for his second yellow card in a matter of minutes, but it was not be. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was shown his second yellow card of the match on the ensuing free kick and sent off. After watching the replay six times, I still cannot see what the referee sent Huntelaar off for. The match would end without any further incidents.

Schalke have hit a major bump in the road that is their season, and they're struggling to get out of it. They haven't won since November 10 and have been outscored 5-13 in that time. It appears that manager Huub Stevens will be on his way out possibly along with Huntelaar. The next month will be important for Schalke as they look to recover from a disappointing few weeks.