Hertha 2-2 Leverkusen
Freiburg 0-0 Cologne
Hoffenheim 1-1 Frankfurt
Nurnberg 0-4 Hamburg
Bochum 1-5 Bayern
Monchengladbach 5-3 Hannover
Bremen 0-2 Schalke
Mainz 1-1 Stuttgart
Wolfsburg 1-3 Dortmund
Life is never dull in the crazy world of Jens Lehmann and what a week it's been, even for him. Fined by the club for criticising the board over the sacking of Markus Babbel - a fine he subsequently refused to pay - he was also caught taking a surreptitious (he thought) toilet break behind an advertising hoarding in the Champions League game against Unirea. Then at the weekend, seeing his beleaguered side on the verge of taking their first league win in nine attempts, he simply had to act. Pavel Pogrebnyak had put Stuttgart ahead just ten minutes into their game at Mainz and they were good value to hang on and claim all three points as the clock ticked down. Step forward Agent Lehmann. Step forward right onto the foot of Aristide Bancé, Mainz's Burkina Faso international striker who, to be generous to him, has a very high centre of gravity and down he went. The two had been at it all game long, but it was Bancé who was laughing longest and loudest as Lehmann was sent off. Eugen Polanski stuck the penalty away and Stuttgart remain deep in the mire.
But crazy behaviour is not restricted to bonkers goalkeepers. Managers are not immune from the brush of the idiot fairy's wand and the big recipient of that this week was Armin Veh. In any other week, he'd be headline news, but Crazy Jens has bumped him off top spot. His shambolic Wolfsburg side, who seem to have had their hearts replaced by a milk-based pudding since winning the title, contrived to let in Lucas Barrios for two embarrassingly easy goals inside the opening ten minutes of their game with Dortmund on Sunday. Veh's response was to haul off Marcel Schafer and Thomas Kahlenberg, the latter of whom was on full debut for the club. On went Fabian Johnson and Grafite with Veh presumably crossing everything in hope that he didn't pick up any injuries. But after Patrick Owomoyela had scored an equally embarrassingly easy third, Christian Gentner copped a boot to the head and had to go off, leaving Wolfsburg with just the eleven out there for the second half. Comedy fans were to be denied though, as no further mishap occurred, despite the petulant Zvjezdan Misimovic's best efforts, as Dortmund had pretty much put the cue back in the rack and only Grafite's consolation, such as it was, punctuated a (comparatively) dull second half.
More comedy too in Monchengladbach where Hannover contrived to put three own goals away as they went down 5-3 in a ludicrous game. The first put Gladbach into the lead early on, Karim Haggui getting in the way of an attempted clearance from his goalkeeper. Rob Friend's thumping header extended the lead, but Hannover did pull one back before half-time, Didier Ya Konan scrambling the ball home after a corner was only half-cleared. The two-goal advantage was restored by the second own goal ten minutes after the break, the world's worst ever attempted back pass skewing off the outside of Constant Djakpa's boot and past the helpless Florian Fromlowitz. Michael Bradley thundered in a free-kick for 4-1 before Ya Konan first pulled one back despite the obvious use of an arm and was then sent off, picking up a second yellow for a knee-high lunge on Gladbach keeper Logan Bailly. That came with six minutes left, but Hannover pulled back another three minutes later, Christian Schulz sliding in to take the ball off a dithering defender's toes for 4-3. But in stoppage time, the game was made safe by Haggui's second own goal, his backpass completely wrong-footing Fromlowitz.
Leverkusen drew for the third time in four games, but remain top. They were behind for a long time in the capital against Hertha after Adrian Ramos had given the bottom placed club an early lead. Toni Kroos levelled it 15 minutes from time and Gojko Kacar's second yellow for dissent soon followed, seemingly ending Hertha's hopes. That sense grew when Turkish debutant Burak Kaplan put Leverkusen in front in the last minute, but Ramos headed in a late, late equaliser to snatch a point. Schalke are up to second after seeing off an out-of sorts Bremen while Bayern's Champions League win in Turin seems to have sparked something. They stuffed Bochum 5-1, Ivica Olic scoring twice and big contributions coming from the previously misfiring Mario Gomez and Danijel Pranjic. Hamburg finally got back to winning ways thanks in no small part to the returning Eljero Elia who grabbed two of his sides four against Nurnberg. Hoffenheim were held by Eintracht, Pirmin Schwegler equalising Sejad Salihovic's early penalty, and Freiburg and Cologne fought out a predictably dull 0-0 draw.
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