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Soccer-Birthday boy Serdar scores as Schalke claim narrow win over Augsburg

GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (Reuters) -Suat Serdar celebrated his 24th birthday by scoring his first Bundesliga goal of the season as basement side Schalke 04 snapped a 12-game winless run to beat Augsburg 1-0 at the Veltins Arena on Sunday.

Having failed to score in their past five home games, Schalke broke the deadlock inside four minutes when Germany midfielder Serdar slotted home from close range after Augsburg goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz failed to collect a low cross.

Augsburg threatened to equalise through forwards Marco Richter and Ruben Vargas but a disciplined Schalke defence held on to claim only their second league win of the campaign.

With six games remaining, Schalke still have work to do if they are to survive the drop as they remain 13 points adrift of the safety zone.

Meanwhile, Augsburg are yet to secure their top-flight status and sit 11th with a six-point cushion over the relegation playoff spot.

Leandro Barreiro's stunning stoppage-time winner earned Mainz 05 crucial three points in the relegation battle as they came from behind in the second half to beat Cologne 3-2 at the Rhein Energie stadium.

The result lifted Mainz up to 14th in the table, five points clear of 17th-placed Cologne in the automatic relegation spot.

Cologne remain three points off Arminia Bielefeld in the playoff position.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge, editing by Pritha Sarkar)