Borussia Dortmund continue to set the Bundesliga pace after beating Bayer Leverkusen, but Bayern Munich remain in hot pursuit.
Dortmund and Bayern win again at the top of the table
Borussia Dortmund continue to set the Bundesliga pace after beating Bayer Leverkusen, but Bayern Munich remain in hot pursuit and Borussia Monchengladbach battered Schalke.
Stuttgart hammered struggling Hertha Berlin, while Werder Bremen and Hannover both required late equalisers to earn draws.
Shinji Kagawa's goal on the stroke of half-time was enough to preserve
Dortmund's two-point lead at the summit following a 1-0 home success over
Leverkusen.
A solid first-half performance keeps
Bayern on the reigning champions' coat-tails following a 2-0 home triumph over lowly
Kaiserslautern.
Mario Gomez scored after just six minutes for Bayern before fellow Germany international Thomas Muller added the second on the half-hour mark.
Borussia Monchengladbach leapfrogged
Schalke into third spot after a dominant first-half display delivered a 3-0 home success.
Marco Reus scored after just two minutes for Gladbach and further goals from Mike Hanke and Juan Arango had the game sewn up by half-time.
Martin Harnik helped himself to a hat-trick as
Stuttgart blitzed out-of-sorts
Hertha Berlin 5-0 at home.
Recent signing Vedad Ibisevic opened the scoring for the hosts after 24 minutes and Harnik scored his first of the game four minutes later.
Shinji Okazaki netted on 32 minutes and, after making it 4-0 before half-time, Harnik then completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark.
Marko Arnautovic scored a last-minute leveller as
Werder Bremen snatched a 1-1 draw at home with mid-table
Hoffenheim.
Jannik Vestegaard's fourth minute goal appeared likely to give Hoffenheim the points until Arnautovic's dramatic intervention.
Hannover were another team indebted to a late equaliser as substitute Artur Sobiech salvaged a 1-1 draw away to
Mainz.
Mohamed Zidan's seventh minute goal had Mainz in command until Sobiech, who was only introduced in the 86th minute, equalised with a minute remaining.
