BERLIN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Schalke came from behind to crush newly promoted Paderborn 5-1 while a clinical Freiburg eased 3-0 past Hoffenheim to move to the third place at the closer of the 4th round of Bundesliga action on Sunday.
Amine Harit's second-half brace sewed up Schalke's second win of the season as Paderborn were unable to protect their narrow lead.
The newly promoted side ensured a bright start into the clash as Cauly Oliveira Souza utilized the host's first chance after heading home Sven Michel's cross into the box just eight minutes into the game.
Schalke responded well but neither Mark Uth nor Guido Burgstaller were able to beat Freiburg goalkeeper Jannik Huth. The "Royal Blues" had to wait until the 33rd minute before Bastian Oczipka's lobbed cross found Salif Sane, who nodded home the equalizer.
The hosts had the chance to restore their one-goal lead but Sven Michel rattled only the side netting from a promising position.
Schalke started energetically into the second half and needed only four minutes after the restart to turn the tides as Suat Serder scored with a deflected shot from the edge of the box.
The visitors' gained momentum and smoothed the way to victory as Jonjoe Kenny's set up allowed Harit to get his name on the score sheets in the 71st minute.
Paderborn were unable to hold the pace, while Schalke were not done with the scoring as substitute Ahmed Kutucu completed a fast break to make it 4-1 before Harit capitalized on Kutucu's assist to seal his brace and the game in the 85th minute.
With the result, Schalke climb on the 6th position while newly promoted Paderborn slipped to 17th place.
Elsewhere, Freiburg captured the third place in the standings after staging a clinical performance against wasteful Hoffenheim.
The goals from Christian Gunter, Jannik Haberer and Nils Petersen were enough to beat Hoffenheim, who controlled the proceedings for most of the time but lacked in accuracy in front of Freiburg's goal.
With the surprising win, Freiburg jumped on the 3rd place of the table while Hoffenheim suffered their second loss to slump to the 13th position.
