Raul draws level at top of European goalscoring charts



GELSENKIRCHEN, GERMANY // Raul equalled Gerd Muller's European club goalscoring record with two goals in Schalke's 3-1 Champions League win over Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Raul scored in the third minute and doubled Schalke's lead in the 58th, taking him to 69 goals in European club competition.

The former Spain international has scored a record 68 goals in the Champions League, 66 of them for Real Madrid, plus one in the European Super Cup. Muller set the record in European club competition 33 years ago.

"That's not important for me, the main thing is that we won," Raul said of his goalscoring records. "We needed a good game, we have many new players."

Jose Manuel Jurado made it 3-0 to Schalke in the 68th. Etey Shechter scored for Hapoel in injury time.

"We are very pleased with the result," Jurado said. "I hope we can start a run now."

Schalke has six points from three games in Group B, while Hapoel still has to take a point. Lyon, which beat Benfica 2-0, has nine points. Benfica has three.

"We are beginning to play better with every game," said the Schalke coach Felix Magath, whose team is only one point from the bottom of the Bundesliga. "I think we now have a good chance of playing in Europe in the new year as well."

Jurado set up Schalke's first with a perfect through ball, which Klaas-Jan Huntelaar left for Raul to slot past the goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.

Schalke easily dominated the game but Enyeama kept Hapoel in it with some good saves, three of them from Huntelaar.

At the other end, Hapoel's only attempt came shortly before half time but Manuel Neuer caught Omri Kende's shot.

Schalke kept up the pressure after the break and Huntelaar struck the crossbar with two consecutive attempts after a rare mistake by Enyeama.

But Raul doubled the lead shortly afterward when he collected a good pass from Ivan Rakitic, who had been sent through by Huntelaar, and scored from close range.

Enyeama made up for his earlier mistake by making a good save from Rakitic, then foiled Jurado.

But Jurado found the target minutes later, placing a right-foot shot into the far corner over Enyeama's outstretched arms.

Hapoel hardly threatened Schalke's goal but scored with the last kick of the match. A long range free kick took Schalke's defence by surprise and Shechter took advantage of the confusion to roll the ball past Neuer into the net.

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