Hannover got the better of Bayern Munich but Bayer Leverkusen remain second after beating Wolfsburg.
Hannover beat Bayern; Eigler nets four for Nurnberg
Hannover got the better of Bayern Munich in Saturday's big game but Bayer Leverkusen remain second after beating Wolfsburg, while Nurnberg moved up to sixth by seeing off St Pauli.
Bayern Munich started the day with the chance to climb above
Hannover into third, but slumped to a 3-1 defeat at AWD-Arena against their fellow high-flyers.
Mohammed Abdellaoue opened the scoring for Hannover after only 16 minutes and Konstantin Rausch made it 2-0 early in the second half.
Arjen Robben quickly reduced Bayern's arrears but Hannover struck again through Sergio Pinto to stretch their run without a defeat to five games.
The result temporarily lifted Hannover into second, but
Bayer Leverkusen responded in the late kick-off by cruising to a 3-0 victory against
Wolfsburg.
Bayer produced a dominant first-half display as goals from Lars Bender, Renato Augusto and Stefan Kiessling punished Wolfsburg, but Jupp Heynckes' side still trail leaders Borussia Dortmund by 12 points.
Christian Eigler enjoyed a memorable afternoon as
Nurnberg continued their fine form by brushing aside
St Pauli 5-0 to extend their unbeaten run to seven matches.
The damage was done inside the opening 20 minutes as Philipp Wollscheid's early opener was added to by a brace from Eigler.
Eigler then completed his hat-trick in the 86th minute, and remarkably grabbed a fourth before the final whistle.
At the other end of the table it was a good day for
Stuttgart as they battled to a 1-0 victory at home to ten-man
Schalke to clamber out of the relegation zone.
The crucial moment arrived after just 14 minutes when Benedkit Howedes was sent off for handball in the area and Zdravko Kuzmanovic stepped up to score the resultant penalty for Stuttgart.
Bottom club
Borussia Monchengladbach also boosted their survival hopes by overcoming
Hoffenheim 2-0 at home.
There was nothing to choose between the sides until a decisive period of two goals in the space of four minutes midway through the second half from Filip Daems and Igor de Camargo.
Eintracht Frankfurt and
Kaiserslautern, two teams that have struggled in recent weeks, perhaps not surprisingly played out a goalless draw at Commerzbank Arena.
