Kagawa double keeps Dortmund on Bayern's tail

FC Bayern München remain at the Bundesliga summit following a 1-0 win against VfL Wolfsburg, with Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 matching their points tally with respective 3-1 and 4-1 successes.

Dortmund are showing flashes of the form that won them last last season's title, and comfortably overcame TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, racing into a 3-0 lead within 55 minutes thanks to two Shinji Kagawa strikes and a Kevin Grosskreutz effort.

Kagawa broke the deadlock (16) when Sebastian Kehl exploited a mistake by goalkeeper Tom Starke to play him in, and the Japanese international struck again when Grosskreutz teed him up with a clever backheel. By then Grosskreutz had already scored himself (31) following excellent approach play involving Kagawa and Jakub Błaszczykowski. Fabian Johnson's subsequent strike was academic.

Bayern remain top on goal difference after defeating Wolfsburg, who trailed to Mario Gomez's 17th goal in 18 appearances, which came on the hour, before Arjen Robben pounced in added time. However, Schalke are the third side on 40 points after coming from behind to sink 1. FC Köln 4-1 with two Ciprian Marica goals, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's penalty and a Marco Höger strike.

Elsewhere, Hamburger SV won 2-1 at Hertha BSC Berlin, fifth-placed SV Werder Bremen and Bayer 04 Leverkusen, in sixth, drew 1-1 and FC Augsburg and 1. FC Kaiserslautern shared four goals (2-2).