Saturday 6 December 2014 20:48, UK
Bayern Munich survived a stern test from Bayer Leverkusen to remain seven points clear at the top of the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win at the Allianz Arena.
Leverkusen made life difficult for the league leaders in the first half but, after Franck Ribery put Bayern in front and they wasted chances to win more handsomely.
The three points nevertheless give Bayern a sizeable cushion over Wolfsburg in second place while Leverkusen slip 13 points adrift, also dropping to fourth in the table behind Augsburg.
Wolfsburg had earlier kept the pressure up on Bayern with a 3-1 win at Hannover in the Lower Saxony derby.
Joselu cancelled out Kevin De Bruyne's early opener for the Wolves but the visitors still took the points thanks to goals from Bas Dost and Maximilian Arnold.
Augsburg, meanwhile, continued their shock rise up the standings with a 2-1 comeback win at Cologne.
Alexander Esswein scored the winner in stoppage time after his team-mate Nikola Djurdjic had levelled up Anthony Ujah's 14th-minute opener for Cologne.
It was a deserved fourth successive win for Markus Weinzierl's men, who have recovered superbly from losing their first two games of the season.
Schalke are fifth after hammering sorry Stuttgart 4-0 with a hat-trick from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Choupo-Moting had the ball in the back of the net after less than 60 seconds before Max Meyer added a second shortly after.
Choupo-Moting's second made it 3-0 after 21 minutes and he added a fourth in the second half as Schalke picked up their first away points under coach Roberto Di Matteo, while leaving Stuttgart rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga.
Borussia Monchengladbach snapped a three-game losing streak to keep up with the chasing pack at the top of the table thanks to a 3-2 win over Hertha Berlin.
Tony Jantschke gave Gladbach the lead after 10 minutes, but it was his mistake which allowed Julian Schieber to level for Berlin on the stroke of half-time.
Gladbach wasted chance after chance before Raffael put them in front and Thorgan Hazard put the points in the bank.
A late penalty from Salomon Kalou was merely a consolation for Hertha.
In Saturday's other game, Elias Kachunga snatched a late yet deserved equaliser for Paderborn as they drew 1-1 at Freiburg, who had taken an 18th-minute lead through Vladimir Darida's penalty.
