Bayern and Dortmund enjoy emphatic victories

FC Bayern München recorded their 12th straight Bundesliga win by dispatching 1. FC Nürnberg 4-0, while Borussia Dortmund consigned bottom team SpVgg Greuther Fürth to a 6-1 defeat.

The game in Munich was five minutes old when defender Jérôme Boateng broke the deadlock with an acrobatic volley. Mario Gomez finished unerringly 12 minutes later to extend the champions' lead, and Rafinha turned in Claudio Pizarro's pinpoint cross soon after.

Xherdan Shaqiri added a fourth in the second half after stand-in Bayern goalkeeper Tom Starke had denied Timmy Simons from the spot. The victory was the Bavarians' 100th in the German top flight at the Fußball Arena München, which opened in 2005.

Not to be denied a share of the limelight, Dortmund powered five first-half goals past Fürth. Mario Götze and İlkay Gündoğan both struck twice and Jakub Błaszczykowski weighed in with another. Any relief garnered from Edgar Prib's consolation was punctured by Robert Lewandowski registering for the 11th successive league game.

In Saturday's late kick-off, FC Schalke 04 failed to trim the gap on their third-placed opponents Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who had Ömer Toprak sent off. Sami Hyypiä's visitors were two goals to the good until Teemu Pukki halved the deficit 19 minutes from time and Raffael converted a late penalty. 

Elsewhere, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim drew 2-2 at VfL Wolfsburg and remain six points adrift of fourth-from-bottom Fortuna Düsseldorf, whose encounter with SV Werder Bremen ended in the same result. As for Hamburger SV, they moved into eighth courtesy of a 2-1 win at 1. FSV Mainz 05.