Hamburg 1-0 Bayern
Hertha 2-1 Eintracht
Hoffenheim 2-0 Energie
Hannover 1-0 Schalke
Stuttgart 2-0 Mönchengladbach
Cologne 1-1 Wolfsburg
Dortmund 1-1 Leverkusen
Bochum 2-0 Karlsruhe
Bremen 1-2 Arminia
Hamburg beat a disappointing Bayern side on Friday night, a result that - briefly - sent them top. Luca Toni missed a host of chances for the Bavarians and it seemed to get to them. Hamburg, conversely, bided their time and Mladen Petric headed past Michael Rensing just before the break. Martin Jol has been working with his hands tied to a degree, but managed to sign five players following this win as they look to maintain their title push. Prime among these is Venezuelan Tomas Rincon, seen as the long-term successor to Nigel de Jong.
With Bayern losing, Hoffenheim had the chance to go clear at the top with a win over lowly Energie Cottbus. And they did. The villagers, without many of their top strikers, made short work of their relegation-threatened rivals. Demba Ba scored early on before Boubacar Sanogo, on his debut for the club, doubled the lead on 63 minutes. That's goal number 44 for Hoffenheim in this remarkable first season in the Bundesliga. Hetha Berlin pushed Bayern down to fourth with their win over Eintracht. They could even afford a missed penalty, earned by Marko Pantelic and missed by Cicero. Perhaps they should have left it to Pantelic who scored both Hertha goals, in the 17th and 50th minutes. Eintracht did strike back on 53 through Benjamin Köhler and, but for an excellent save from Jaroslav Drobny, could have levelled it through Alexander Meier, but the Berliners held on for the win.
It could have been even worse for Bayern had Leverkusen done better than a draw at Dortmund. Instead, it finished 1-1, leaving both sides on the fringes of the European places. Alex Frei put Dortmund ahead at the back end of the first half, but wunderkid Patrick Helmes equalised after an hour; Tranquilo Barnetta causing havoc in the Dortmund defence in the build-up. Simon Rolfes should have won it late on, but somehow managed to clear the crossbar from virtually underneath it - almost impossible, one would think.
Bremen and Schalke both lost ground thanks to surprise defeats. Bremen, at home, were undone by a determined Arminia side who eased their relegation fears a little. Bremen were without many of their top players - Diego and Claudio Pizarro for two - and Arminia weren't about to dish out charity. Michael Lamey crossed for Torben Marx to open the scoring for Bielefeld on 24 minutes, but Hugo Almeida equalised seconds before the break; Mesut Ozil and Torsten Frings working a neat free-kick routine after Arminia keeper Dennis Eilhoff had handled outside the box. Just four minutes after the restart, Frings got caught in possession and Christopher Katongo latched onto it to set up Artur Wichniarek to fire home the winner. Pressure is beginning to build on Schalke boss Fred Rutten after this latest defeat, away at Hannover. Sergio Pinto's eighth minute goal was the difference in the end.
Bochum pulled themselves out of the bottom three and plunged their opponents Karlsruhe back in. The 2-0 win ended a 13-game sequence without a win and it was goals from Christian Fuchs and Diego Klimowicz and Karlsruhe, despite dominating possession could do precious little about it. Mönchengladbach remain rooted to the foot of the ladder after Stuttgart beat them 2-0. It wasn't vintage stuff from Stuttgart, but Ciprian Marica and a late one from Mario Gomes were enough.
Wolfsburg again failed to win away from home, drawing 1-1 in Cologne. It was better though, and they could have won it late on, Faryd Mondragon making fine saves from Grafite and Yoshito Okubu in the dying moments. Grafite had equalised Sergui Radu's opener - Radu is on loan at Cologne from Wolfsburg - but found Mondragon in man-of-the-match form for the rest of the game. Both sides remain resolutely mid-table material.
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