BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund coach Lucien Favre said he had given up hope of winning the Bundesliga title after a red card for Marco Reus and a Daniel Caligiuri double saw Dortmund lose 4-2 to Schalke in the Ruhr derby.
Reus was the first of two Dortmund players sent off in five second-half minutes as Schalke came from behind to hand Bayern Munich a golden opportunity to win their seventh straight league title.
League leaders Bayern can now pull four points clear at the top with three games to go with a win at relegation-threatened Nuremberg on Sunday.
Asked on Sky Germany whether the title race was over, Dortmund coach Favre said: "yes, of course".
Dortmund took the lead in style on 14 minutes, Jadon Sancho setting up Mario Goetze with a splendid chip over Schalke's back line.
However Schalke drew level just two minutes later, Daniel Caligiuri converting a contested penalty after a handball decision against Julian Weigl.
Favre railed against the decision, saying that new regulations on handball were "the biggest scandal in football".
"Football is making itself a laughing stock," said the usually reserved Swiss.
"What do they want players to do, cut their arms off? The people who invented these rules, I don't know how they look at themselves in the mirror."
Two minutes later the visitors sent the Signal-Iduna-Park into shock as Salif Sane rose at a corner to put Schalke ahead.
Double disaster struck for Dortmund on the hour mark when captain Marco Reus was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Suat Serdar and Caligiuri curled the resulting free-kick into the top corner.
Marius Wolf then became the second Dortmund player sent off, once again for a reckless challenge on Serdar.
Axel Witsel pulled one back for Dortmund with five minutes remaining, but their hopes were crushed a moment later when Breel Embolo fired in Schalke's fourth.
Elsewhere, RB Leipzig secured Champions League qualification with a 2-1 win over Freiburg, while fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt were held to a 0-0 draw by Hertha Berlin.
Freiburg's Vicenzo Grifo became the first opposing player to score in Leipzig since February, cheekily converting a free-kick before goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi was ready.
Yet goals from Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg gave Leipzig a sixth straight win.
Werder Bremen's hopes of qualifying for Europe suffered a blow as they lost 4-1 at Fortuna Duesseldorf.
They are five points off the Europa league places after a defeat in which Benito Raman put the hosts ahead after just 55 seconds, and Kenan Karaman doubled the lead on 23 minutes.
A Max Kruse penalty restored hope for Werder, but second-half goals from Rouwen Hennings and Markus Suttner sealed the home win.
At the other end of the table, Henrik Weydandt fired bottom club Hanover to a 1-0 win over Mainz that means they still could escape relegation.