Bundesliga Matchday 26 in Pictures
Basement boys Stuttgart and Freiburg gained huge ground in their battle to beat the drop. Borussia Dortmund picked up a 3-2 win in Hannover, while Leverkusen beat Schalke in the race for fourth.
Leverkusen win at Schalke
Leverkusen moves into third with a 1-0 win at Schalke. Karim Bellarabi's 11th strike of the campaign strengthens his side's spot in the Champions League zone with Schalke dropping further back.
Reus roars as Dortmund win
Borussia Dortmund beat ten-man Hannover with some sizzling second half football. Marco Reus assisted two goals on the day, as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbed a double and Shinji Kagawa added another. Lars Stindl scored both of Hannover's goals who now are 10 games without a win.
Freiburg out of the drop zone
Freiburg scored for the first time in more than 400 minutes, beating Augsburg 2-0 to move out of the bottom-three. They're still level with Hamburg who now occupy 15th though. Jonathan Schmid scored on 78 minutes before Nils Petersen added a second late on.
New hope for Stuttgart
Stuttgart staged a massive comeback in their match with Frankfurt. Haris Seferovic put the visitors ahead, but a quick-fire double from Daniel Ginczek sent the home fans into raptures. Alexandru Maxim tied up the win, which keeps Stuttgart in contact with the teams above them.
Paderborn fire blank
Paderborn have failed to score in nine of their last 10 games. Saturday's home clash with Hoffenheim followed the same trend. Markus Gisdol's men were cut down to ten men when Emir Bicakcic was shown his marching orders, but the home side couldn't take advantage.
Late leveler for Cologne
Matthias Lehmann's late penalty snatched a point for Cologne at home to Werder Bremen. Viktor Skripnik's side scored their 19th goal from a set-play this season with Junuzovic assisting for the 11th time when Davie Selke hit the net.
Crisis in Hamburg
Hamburg remains in turmoil. Another defeat leaves Josef Zinnbauer's job under threat and the Northern Germans' proud record of never being relegated in the mixer. Sebastian Langkamp's late winner secured the points on Friday night.