SOCCER BUNDESLIGA: DERBY DAYS: Borussia Dortmund v FC Schalke 04: The stakes are always high when Schalke and Borussia Dortmund meet, but there have been occasions when a lot more than bragging rights have been up for grabs, writes DAMIAN CULLEN

SOMETIMES, ALL the rivalry, all the bitterness, all the history, can come down to just one game. Two seasons ago, May 12th, 2007, Schalke made the 25-mile journey to the Westfalenstadion as Bundesliga leaders on the penultimate day of the season. Thanks to players of the calibre of Kevin Kurányi, the league title was within touching distance.

A first league title since 1958 beckoned, and the chance to seal the crown in front of the supporters of Schalke’s great rivals – in Germany’s biggest derby – was almost too much for Schalke’s supporters.

As it turned out, it was certainly too much for Schalke’s players, who buckled under the pressure against a team they had beaten 3-1 earlier in the season.

Dreams and tactics all fell asunder, with Swiss star Alexander Frei and Polish forward Euzebiusz Smolarek scoring in each half to help knock Schalke off the top of the Bundesliga, which they had held for three months. Days later, Stuttgart were champions and Borussia Dortmund were selling special commemorative T-shirts, celebrating the derby result.

The following season, Schalke returned to find the Borussia Dortmund fans had put in some considerable effort to celebrate their rivals’ 50-year wait for a league title, though Schalke at least ruined the party atmosphere with a 3-2 victory.

Once again, the Revierderby had saved its best for the meeting in Dortmund rather than Gelsenkirchen. In fact, last season at the Westfalenstadion – now known as Signal Iduna Park – featured one of the most dramatic comebacks in the history of the derby meetings.

Again, Schalke arrived intent on holding on to their place at the summit of the Bundesliga – albeit much earlier in the competition than two seasons earlier.

The occasion – played in front of 70,000 home supporters and 10,000 away fans – clearly got to the Dortmund players and, 20 minutes in, Neven Subotic handled in the area to gift Schalke a goal from the spot. Just before half-time, it was 2-0, and the game looked over 10 minutes after the break when Schalke went three clear.

However, with home favourite Alexander Frei now on the pitch, the home side began to play and, with 20 minutes left on the clock Subotic made up for his earlier error to head home a Frei corner. Minutes later, Frei rifled home a spectacular left-footed shot (worth watching on www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ck3IUwb2EE) and it was 3-2. Game on.

Instead of regrouping, the league leaders disintegrated and two minutes later Christian Pander was shown a second yellow for a tackle that only appeared a minor one when compared with the reckless challenge his team-mate Fabian Ernst committed a few minutes later. Just a goal in arrears, and with 15 minutes left to play, Dortmund were now playing against nine men.

The goal, however, didn’t arrive until the last minute of normal time when a Schalke defender appeared to handle in the area. It was innocuous, and appeared accidental, but having kicked off the game with a penalty for Schalke due to a hand ball, and in the now red-hot atmosphere that was the Dortmund stadium, it would have been a brave, or perhaps very foolish, referee that didn’t immediately point to the spot. Frei made no mistake and the referee, who by now had had enough, decided against injury-time. Schalke dropped to third in the league table, one place above Borussia Dortmund.

It was just one of the latest instalments in a rivalry that began with a 4-2 Schalke victory in 1925 and which has found a fertile ground to thrive, the Ruhr Area being football-crazy.

Only eight European clubs can boost average domestic league attendances of more than 60,000 spectators. They are, for the most part, the usual suspects – Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, and three from Germany – Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04.

The Revierderby is always a packed house of course, and at the same time as the derby is kicking off this weekend, Jens Lehmann – who will be 40 later this year – will be keeping goal for VfB Stuttgart at Eintracht Frankfurt.

The former Arsenal player is one of only a select few players to have plied his trade at both Schalke and Borussia Dortmund – and to have been revered at both.

Beginning his career with Schalke in the late 1980s, Lehmann’s moment of glory came almost a decade later when, with Schalke 2-1 down, Lehmann justified abandoning his own goal by getting his head to a last-minute corner.

Earlier that year he had put in a man-of-the-match performance for Schalke in the Uefa Cup final, saving an Iván Zamorano effort in the penalty shoot-out. But scoring against Borussia Dortmund – who were busy that year winning the Champions League – even trumped that performance.

A year later, however, he would be based in Dortmund, with the club not coincidentally returning to the head of the table in German football after Lehmann’s arrival – winning the Bundesliga in 2002, and reaching the Uefa Cup final the same year. To Schalke fans, it was hero to zero in seconds.

There are two derbies in the Ruhr this week. Last night, a Kleines Revierderby took place as Schalke made the short trip to VfL Bochum in the second round of the German Cup (DFB-Pokal). Schalke won 3-0, with Borussia Dortmund also emerging with a 3-0 win at Karlsruher last night.

The two matches, however, are merely appetisers ahead of the biggest derby in German football.