Hoffenheim capitalise on Leverkusen slip

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim moved to the top of the Bundesliga thanks to a 3-1 victory at 1. FC Köln, leapfrogging Bayer 04 Leverkusen after the previous leaders lost 2-1 to struggling DSC Arminia Bielefeld in a goal-filled Saturday afternoon in Germany.

Prolific Ibišević
Demba Ba and Vedad Ibišević, with his 15th and 16th goals of the season, secured Hoffenheim maximum points in Cologne to ease the promoted club three points clear of Leverkusen, who suffered a first defeat in seven Bundesliga matches as second-half strikes from Artur Wichniarek and Daniel Halfar lifted Arminia out of the bottom three. Third-placed FC Bayern München moved level on points with Leverkusen courtesy of a 4-1 defeat of FC Energie Cottbus. Ervin Skela had given the visitors a shock lead in Munich, but goals from Franck Ribéry and Martín Demichelis in the first half and Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni in the second stretched Bayern's unbeaten run to eight league games.

Hertha burst
BV Borussia Dortmund's 1-0 defeat of Karlsruher SC on Friday had lifted them ahead of Hertha BSC Berlin, but the side from the capital reclaimed fourth spot thanks to a burst of three goals in 14 first-half minutes which helped them to a 3-2 win at VfL Bochum 1848. FC Schalke 04 moved ahead of Hamburger SV, who entertain Werder Bremen on Sunday, into sixth, Halil Altıntop scoring either side of a Jefferson Fárfan penalty as they added to VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach's troubles with a 3-1 win.

Second-half show
Grafite and Edin Dzeko both scored twice as VfL Wolfsburg struck four times in the second half to beat VfB Stuttgart 4-1 and hoist themselves into eighth, while two Nikos Liberopoulos goals saw Eintracht Frankfurt ease away from the relegation zone with a convincing 4-0 defeat of Hannover 96.