Bochum 0-2 Stuttgart
Nurnberg 2-3 Dortmund
Hertha 0-1 Schalke
Monchengladbach 1-1 Bayern
Leverkusen 3-0 Hannover
Mainz 3-3 Eintracht
Bremen 1-0 Cologne
Hoffenheim 5-1 Hamburg
Freiburg 1-0 Wolfsburg
The writing was on the wall for Bruno Labbadia from a while back, but the Hamburg board acted after a gubbing from Hoffenheim. Vedad Ibisevic and Chinedu Obasi both got doubles as Hoffenheim ended a grim run of results with a 5-1 thrashing. Ibisevic put The Villagers two up in ten minutes before Obasi's first on the half hour made it three. Robert Tesche pulled one back, but Obasi got Hoffenheim's fourth shortly before Sejad Salihovic added a fifth. Worse still for Hamburg, substitute Tolgay Arslan was sent off in stoppage time for violent conduct. Normally, there wouldn't be too much shock at the coach getting the boot, but the timing is a little odd with the second leg of their Europa League semi-final against Fulham in a few days time. Ricardo Moniz will be in charge for that one and for the rest of the season. The final of the Europa League is at the Volksparkstadion and the weight of expectation on the club reaching that final has been overwhelming.
Up at the pointy end of the table, Bayern dropped points at Gladbach. Marco Reus put Gladbach ahead on the counter-attack on the hour, but Miroslav Klose came off the bench to head home an equaliser from Phillip Lahm's free-kick to rescue a point. It looked like Schalke were about to pass up the chance to level it up at the top as they were being held by Hertha at the time, but Heiko Westermann swooped on Jefferson Farfan's parried shot to prod home a late winner. Bayern lead by a superior goal difference of 13.
It is now a two-horse race. Bremen and Leverkusen needed the top two to lose all their remaining games to stand a chance. Both are now seven points adrift with two games to go. Bremen won against Cologne, but got lucky. It was deep in stoppage time when Pedro Geromel was sent off for handling in the box and Torsten Grings slammed the penalty home. Stefan Kiessling went back to the top of the goal-scoring charts with two of Leverkusen's three against Hannover coming either side of Burak Kaplan's goal, his second in as many games for the club. Bremen lead Leverkusen by just two goals in the race for the final Champions League spot. Dortmund lie just a point further back thanks largely to a Lucas Barrios hat-trick. Christian Eigler pulled it back to 3-2 six minutes from time, but Dortmund held out for the win. Stuttgart also remain hopeful of Champions League football after a 2-0 win over Bochum on Friday night. Early goals from Cacau and Ciprian Marica sealed it.
Bochum's loss drops them into the bottom three as Freiburg won against Wolfsburg. Cedric Makiadi got the only goal of the game late in the first half as they leap up to 14th. Honours were even on the Main as Eintracht twice blew a lead in Mainz. Alexander Meier put them two up inside twenty minutes, but Aristide Bancé pulled one back seconds before the break and Jan Simak equalised shortly after it. They were level for just seven minutes before Umit Korkmaz restored Eintracht's lead, but Bancé's second came a few minutes from time to square it up once more.
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