At German Bundesliga, Shalke were entertaining Dortmund. The visitors came in eight points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich, and were looking to close the gap on the Bavarians -- so they could not afford to drop any points with just 6 games left in the campaign.

Dortmund would rest several regulars with their UEFA Europa League quarter-final second leg against Liverpool in mind to be played on Thursday.

There is little excitement in the first half, but the game springs to life after the break. Moritz Leitner backheels the ball into the path of Shinji Kagawa, and the Japanese midfielder lobs the ball over Ralf Faehrmann from the edge of the area. (REPLAY) Clever play from the midfielder racing to the edge of the box to fire the ball into net. 1-nil BVB.

But the hosts would level the game two minutes later, Leroy Sane firing home the rebound after Roman Buerki parries the ball invitingly into his path.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan's free kick hits a Schalke defender and loops into the area. The home defence is wrong-footed and Mattias Ginter, in between two defenders, is left unchallenged to head in the ball.

But the game is far from over as Klaas Jan Huntelaar earns a penalty in the in the 65th minute, after he is shoved over by Sokratis Papa-stath-opoulos in the area.

The referee points to the spot and gives the Greek a yellow card, The Dutch striker makes no mistake to convert the penalty. 2-2 is how it ends.

Schalke 2 - Dortmund 2

Millhanders climb to fourth place in league standings

Elsewhere Cologne would host Bayern Leverkusen.

Julian Brandt gives the visitors the lead five minutes before the interval, scoring for the third game in a row from Karim Bellarabi's cross.

Bellarabi and Brandt hook-up just five minutes later, as they set up Javier Hernandez, who beats Timo Horn from close range. 2-0 for Bayer, which is where they make Aspirin. 2-0 is how it ends.

So in the standings, Dortmund trail BayerN by seven points with five games left. Leverkusen climb to fourth, and close to within a point of third-placed Hertha Berlin. Moenchegladbach sit fifth, while Mainz are sixth.

Donkeys now just six points behind leaders Juventus

Over in Italy, Napoli would face Hellas Verona at home, but are without suspended top scorer Gonzalo Higuain, who is sitting out the first of his four-game ban, after an outburst at the referee following a red card against Udinese.

But that barely affects his side, as the hosts get on the board in the 33rd minute. Manolo Gabbiadini heads in a rebound after goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini pushes Jose Callejon's volley from Marek Hamsik's cross into his path.

On the stroke of half-time, Samuel Souprayen is given a red card for for bringing down Jose Callejon in the area.

Lorenzo Insigne tucks the penalty away. 2-0 for the hosts.

The former Real Madrid forward Callejon gets on the scoresheet himself with 20 minutes to go, by applying the finish from Omar El Kaddouri's cut back from the byline. 3-0 is how it ends.

Sunday's other games saw Lazio get a pair of goals from 37-year-old former Germany forward Miroslav Klose, in their win over Palermo. Fiorentina's fading Champions Leauge qualification hopes suffered another blow, as Empoli won the Tuscan Derby 2-0. Torino and Sampdoria were also victorious.

So Napoli close to within six points of leaders Juventus. Roma are third with a game in hand. The continuation of Fiorentina's recent dismal run leaves them sitting in fifth.