Borussia Dortmund opened up a seven-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win over Mainz, while Bayern Munich crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
Meanwhile Freiburg shocked fourth-placed Schalke 2-1 to move off the bottom of the table and Hertha Berlin ended a seven-game losing run with a 1-0 defeat of Werder Bremen in Otto Rehhagel’s first home game in charge.
Dortmund saw Bayern lose 2-0 at Leverkusen before earning a 2-1 win over visiting Mainz thanks to a winner from Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa.
The Bundesliga champions have now set a club record of eight successive victories, extending their unbeaten series to 18.
Juergen Klopp’s side took the lead in the 26th minute though Jakub Blaszczykowski and Kagawa struck in the 77th, just three minutes after a Mainz equaliser from former Dortmund striker Mohamed Zidan.
Bayern’s chances of winning the title were dented at Leverkusen where Stefan Kiessling netted 11 minutes from time and Karim Bellarbi scored a second near the end.
Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer was at fault when a Gonzalo Castro cross sailed passed his hands and Eren Derdiyok managed to hook the ball back from the byline, allowing Kiessling to score from close range.
Leverkusen then punished Bayern with a counter-attack in the last minute finished off by Bellarabi.
Bayern could drop to third if Borussia Moenchengladbach win at Nuremberg on Sunday.
“From this point on we no longer have to talk about the championship,” Bayern sports director Christian Nerlinger said.
“I am not writing it off but it is not something we now have to overly concern ourselves about. We have to see now how we can get to grips with our weakness away from home.”
Schalke’s hopes of moving back into top-three contention were dashed in a 2-1 defeat at Freiburg.
Hertha finally ended their miserable series with a victory in the second match in charge for Rehhagel, against the coach’s former club Bremen, thanks to a Nikita Rukavytsya winner in the 62nd minute.
“Right now we are all tremendously relieved,” Rehhagel said.
“Now it’s up to us to take this mood with us and at the end to leave three teams behind us. This should be the start today, but I also saw a few things I didn’t like.”
Hamburg had striker Paolo Guerrero sent off in the 54th minute as they went down 4-0 at home to Stuttgart, who scored twice from the spot from Zdravko Kuzmanovic after an opener from Vedad Ibisevic, with Martin Harnik adding a late goal.
Kaiserslautern dropped to bottom place with a goalless draw against visiting Wolfsburg, while Hanover and Augsburg finished 2-2.
