Bayern Munich tightened their grip at the top with a home win as nearest pursuers Hamburg drew.
Leaders march on as Hamburg held
Bayern Munich tightened their grip at the top of the Bundesliga with a home win as nearest pursuers Hamburg drew.
Luca Toni struck twice for the leaders against third-placed Bayer Leverkusen, while reigning champions Stuttgart were resounding winners at home to Hansa Rostock.
Fresh from booking their place in the final of the German Cup,
Bayern edged closer to reclaiming the title after a 2-1 success over
Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena.
Italian hot-shot Toni broke the deadlock on 17 minutes and scored again just before the hour, with Dmitriy Bulykin replying for the visitors on 83 minutes.
Hamburg are now seven points behind Bayern after being held to a 1-1 draw at
Wolfsburg, as both teams finished the match with nine men.
Bastian Reinhardt put Hamburg into a 14th minute lead, but Wolfsburg drew level on 52 minutes through Danijel Ljuboja.
Wolfsburg's Alexander Madlung was sent off with 10 minutes to go for a second bookable offence before Hamburg substitute Vincent Kompany dismissed on 87 minutes - just minutes after coming on.
In the final minute, Wolfsburg's Grafite and Hamburg's Joris Mathijsen were sent off for kicking out at each other.
There was a flurry of goals early in the second half as
Stuttgart eventually secured a convincing 4-1 win over
Rostock.
Pavel Pardo and Cacau struck on 52 and 54 minutes for the home side before Mario Gomez put through his own net on 56 minutes.
Stuttgart striker Gomez atoned for his earlier gaffe with his side's third goal on 87 minutes before Yildiray Basturk added a fourth in injury time.
Duisburg remain bottom of the table after coming from behind to draw 1-1 at home to 10-man
Hannover.
The visitors saw striker Mike Hanke sent off after just five minutes of the encounter following an altercation with Iulian Filipescu.
Jiri Stajner, though, gave Hannover the lead three minutes before half-time, with Duisburg snatching a point through Michael Lamey's 77th minute goal.
Nurnberg are on the same number of points as Duisburg at the bottom of the standings after a 1-1 draw at home to
Bochum.
The goals arrived in the opening 10 minutes as Stanislav Sestak put Bochum ahead after five minutes and Zvejzdan Misimovic levelled moments later.
Sebastian Freis' 63rd minute goal secured a 1-1 draw for
Karlsruhe at
Borussia Dortmund, who had gone ahead on 24 minutes through Mladen Petric.
Bayern Munich 2 Bayer Leverkusen 1
Borussia Dortmund 1 Karlsruhe 1
Duisburg 1 Hannover 1
Nurnberg 1 Bochum 1
Stuttgart 4 Hansa Rostock 1
Wolfsburg 1 Hamburg 1
