Bundesliga wrap: Mainz, Bayern slip further away

Mainz 05 lost more ground on Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund after going down 1-0 to struggling Stuttgart on Saturday.

A Martin Harnik strike with 12 minutes remaining at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion proved enough for relegation-threatened Stuttgart to beat the early season front-runners in the first round back following the winter break.

Mainz are now 13 points behind Dortmund, while Stuttgart climb to 16th at the expense of Cologne, who visit Kaiserslautern on Sunday.

Defending champions Bayern Munich also slipped further behind Dortmund after they could only draw 1-1 away to Wolfsburg.

German international Thomas Mueller opened the scoring just seven minutes in at the Volkswagen Arena, but defender Sascha Riether rescued a point for Steve McLaren’s side with four minutes remaining.

Bayern, in fifth place, are 16 points behind Dortmund.

Last season’s third-placed side Werder Bremen are just two points better off than Wolfsburg, but did secure a valuable 2-1 win at home to Hoffenheim.

Claudio Pizzaro put Bremen ahead in the 36th minute at the Weserstadion, before Boris Vukcevic appeared to have salvaged a point for Hoffenheim when he equalised with just three minutes to go.

But fan favourite Torsten Frings delivered the goods for the hosts with a 90th-minute winner.

Freiburg twice came from behind to draw 2-2 away to St Pauli.

Marius Ebbers netted the opener for hosts St Pauli in the 13th minute at the Millerntor-Stadion.

Papiss Cisse levelled for Freiburg a minute after the hour mark, before substitute Gerald Asamoah restored St Pauli’s lead.

Senegal striker Cisse netted his second to pull level again with 15 minutes to go.

The draw leaves St Pauli just three points clear of the bottom three, while overachievers Freiburg are sixth.

Bottom side Borussia Monchengladbach managed just their third victory of the season with a 1-0 win away to Nuremburg.

Roman Neustaedter scored the game’s only goal in the eighth minute at the Frankenstadion.