Arminia 1-1 Hertha
Schalke 1-0 Bremen
Wolfsburg 2-0 Bochum
Monchengladbach 1-1 Hoffenheim
Karlsruhe 3-2 Hamburg
Leverkusen 2-4 Stuttgart
Eintracht 2-2 Cologne
Bayern 3-1 Dortmund
Energie 3-1 Hannover
With Hoffenheim drawing with Gladbach, Hamburg dropping points at Karlsruhe and Hertha only picking up one points at Bielefeld, Bayern were the big winners of the weekend. In an entertaining game at the Allianz Arena, Dortmund took a lead on 80 seconds through Nelson Valdez, captialising on Martin De Michelis's comedy defending and finishing expertly, high into the corner of the net giving Michael Rensing no chance. After that, Bayern dominated and Dortmund looked to hit on the counter. Ze Roberto equalised on 24 minutes, but Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose missed a host of chances and found Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller in top form. Tamas Hajnal, the ever-willing Florian Kringe and substitute Mohamed Zidan ensured that the Bayern defence couldn't relax and it seemed that Dortmund had done enough for a point, but Klose popped up with two late, late goals to win it and put the Bavarians back into second. Three minutes from time, he latched onto a poor clearance by Felipe Santana and, in stoppage time, tucked Franck Ribéry's cross through Weidenfeller's legs.
Hamburg blew a chance to keep the pressure up in a fabulous game in Karlsruhe. Martin Jol's side went 2-0 up early on through José Guerrero and Collin Benjamin, but Sebastien Freis pulled one back almost immediately. Giovanni Federico levelled it up four minutes later and late on, with both side reduced to ten men - Mladen Petric off for Hamburg, which will hurt them - Freis struck a second to pinch all three points. Hoffenheim were lucky to snatch a point at Gladbach who, despite being at the other end of the table to their visitors, were comprehensively outplayed. Alexander Baumjohann headed Gladbach ahead at the end of the first half, and it took the league leaders until stoppage time at the end of the 90 for Wellington to repsond, though he did come from an offside position, infuriating Gladbach boss Hans Meyer. Hertha, too, dropped points in the Friday night game. Andriy Voronin put them ahead with a fine finish from a tight angle early on and struck the bar from distance as Hertha looked to blow Arminia away. They couldn't finish the job though, and Artur Wichniarek's goal five minutes from the break was enough to share the spoils.
Even Tomas Schaaf now admits that Bremen have no chance of Champions League football next season after they lost a drab game to fellow underachievers Schalke. That's kind of understating it. Bremen were awful here and Schalke hardly much better. They, crucially, did manage to take one of the few chances on offer with Benedikt Höwedes converting a deep cross early in the second half. A game best forgotten. Leverkusen and Stuttgart split six goals between them. After a torrid time at the Europeans in the summer, Mario Gomez is slowly winning back over those that had written him off. He scored twice for Stuttgart, opening the scoring in the third minute and hitting Stuttgart's third in the second half. In between times, Arturo Vidal got himself sent off for Leverkusen and Tomas Hitzlsperger fired in a rocket of a free-kick - it kind of went through the wall, with defenders dispersing lest they receive a concussion from the thunderbolt. Steffan Kiessling got one back for Bayer before Gomez's second and an own goal from Lukas Sinkiewicz, though if he'd left it alone, only Gomez was in the area and offside. New signing Angelos Charisteas got a consolation in stoppage time.
Edin Dzeko got both goals for Wolfsburg as they beat Bochum, leaving Bochum second bottom and Energie Cottbus gave themselves a lifeline in beating Hannover 3-1 and hauling themselves out of the bottom three. Dimitar Rangelov got two and Stanislav Angelov the other with Franck Fahrenhorst's late goal for Hannover meaning little.
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