Leaders work hard for wins

Nov 15, 2008 - 6:15 PM Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim remain locked at the top of the Bundesliga although both were made to work hard for their victories Saturday.

Leverkusen played the final 23 minutes a man down but held on to beat Schalke 2-1 at home.

Stefan Kiessling gave Leverkusen the lead after 30 minutes and Patrick Helmes made it 2-0 just before the break.

However, they went down to 10 men when Gonzalo Castro was shown a second yellow card after 67 minutes. Kevin Kuranyi pulled a goal back for Schalke with five minutes to play and the visitors had a goal disallowed in the 90th minute.

Hoffenheim were twice pegged back before eventually seeing off the challenge of Wolfsburg 3-2 thanks to a goal from Chinedu Obasi after 69 minutes.

Vedad Ibisevic (23) and Carlos Eduardo (37) had both seen their goals cancelled out by Grafite (27) and Edin Dzeko (41) before Obasi gave the promoted side their ninth win of the campaign.

The win means Hoffenheim remain undefeated at home and are level with Leverkusen on 28 points, trailing only by goal difference.

Borussia Monchengladbach ended Bayern Munich's five-game winning streak by fighting back from two goals down to grab a 2-2 draw.

Luca Toni put Jurgen Klinsmann's side ahead in the 21st minute and they seemed set to make it six wins in a row when Franck Ribery netted from the penalty spot in the 65th minute.

But the home side reacted with two goals in three minutes to salvage a much-needed point.

Rob Friend brought them back into the game in the 78th minute before Michael Bradley headed the equaliser to earn the Foals a point which lifts them out of the bottom three.

Hertha Berlin climbed above Hamburg into fourth as they beat their rivals 2-1.

Mladen Petric gave Hamburg the lead after 12 minutes but Hertha scored twice in four second-half minutes through Cicero and Valeri Domovchiyski to secure the points.

Borussia Dortmund claimed only their second home win of the campaign thanks to a dominant 4-0 display against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Neven Subotic found the target twice while Tamas Hajnal and Felipe Santana also scored as Dortmund ran riot at Westfalenstadion.

Cagdas Atan scored the only goal of the game nine minutes from time as bottom-placed Energie Cottbus grabbed just their second win of the season against fellow strugglers Karlsruhe.

While the win was not good enough to lift Cottbus off the foot of the Bundesliga table, it does move them to within a point of Karlsruhe who now sit third from bottom.

Stuttgart played out a goalless draw at home to Arminia Bielefeld to round out today's fixtures.

On Friday night, Bochum claimed their third draw in as many games in an entertaining 1-1 contest with fellow strugglers Hannover.

Jan Schlaudruff put the home side in front in the second half, but Bochum were gifted an equaliser thanks to an embarrassing own goal from keeper Florian Fromlowitz.