Hoffenheim end winless streak, move to fourth

Hoffenheim jumped to fourth in the Bundesliga on Sunday with a 3-2 victory at home against nine-man Borussia Moenchengladbach to stay seven points behind new leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Raul Bobadilla gave Gladbach the lead in the 12th minute but Demba Ba answered just 30 seconds after the re-start before Gladbach’s Juan Arango was given his marching orders in the 62nd minute.

Gladbach’s Anderson headed into his own goal just five minutes later and then Sejad Salihovic converted a penalty in the 82nd minute to make it 3-1 just seconds after Sebastian Schachtern was also shown red for taking down Ba in the area.

Mohamadou Idrissou added a consolation goal in the 90th minute for Gladbach.

Hoffenheim snapped a four-game winless streak for 14 points and fourth place while Gladbach are just a point from the relegation zone with six points.

Earlier Sunday, Theofanis Gekas scored twice to give Eintracht Frankfurt their third straight victory by beating Kaiserslautern 3-0 to move to eighth with 12 points.

Gekas struck in the 45th and 67th minutes and Alexander Meier made it 3-0 in the 83rd minute at Kaiserslautern, who remain on seven points in 14th after Srdjan Lakic had a penalty stopped by Frankfurt keeper Oka Nikolov in the 26th minute.

League leaders after Sunday are Borussia Dortmund, who took over from Mainz Friday night with a 2-1 victory at Cologne thanks to Nuri Sahin’s winner a minute into stoppage time.

The victory – which was in doubt after Lukas Podolski equalised in the 82nd minute Jakub Blaszczykowski’s score after 20 minutes – was Dortmund’s seventh straight for 21 points.

“It is amazing how aggressive the guys push forward looking for goals. It’s kind of scary from the sidelines,” said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp.

On Saturday, Mainz lost their first game of the season with a 1-0 defeat at home against Hamburg on Paolo Guerrero’s winner in the 89th minute.

Mainz’s Marco Caligiuri and Ze Roberto of Hamburg both hit the goal framework and a Hamburg goal by Ruud van Nistelrooy was disallowed before Guerrero’s score.

After spending the national team break atop the Bundesliga, Mainz missed a chance for their eighth straight win to start the season, which would have eclipsed the mark by Bayern Munich in 1995-96 and Kaiserslautern in 2001-02.

“We kept shooting and it just wouldn’t go in. Now we need to forget about this game and look ahead,” added Mainz midfielder Lewis Holtby.

The loss leaves Mainz with 21 points in second place behind Dortmund, who have a 14 to 10 advantage on goal difference.

Hamburg’s second straight win pushed the team to fifth place with 14 points.

“The three points (two weekends ago) in Kaiserslautern were really important. And now the confidence is there with this win,” said Hamburg’s Ze Roberto.

“And now we want to stay near the top.”

Bayer Leverkusen are third with 15 points after substitute Simon Rolfes scored two of Leverkusen’s three goals within 11 minutes to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 victory at Wolfsburg (10 points).

In Munich, Mario Gomez was one of the few healthy Bayern Munich players available and he used his chance by scoring three goals in Bayern’s 3-0 win over Hanover 96.

Gomez, who admitted that he was inspired by the 33 rescued Chilean miners, struck in the 21st, 77th and 90th minutes for his first goals in the Bundesliga in 13 matches since February 2010.

“I am very happy that Mario Gomez scored three goals because it’s very important for his confidence. And that is very important for Bayern,” said Bayern coach Louis van Gaal, whose men are 10th with 11 points – 10 points behind Dortmund.

The Bayern boss came into the game with serious personnel concerns with injuries to captain Mark van Bommel, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose, Ivica Olic and Daniel van Buyten while Bastian Schweinsteiger started the game on the bench.

At the bottom of the table, Schalke 04 played to a 2-2 draw at home against VfB Stuttgart – a result which does not help either European club desperate to move up the standings.

Schalke have five points for 16th and Stuttgart are dead last with four points.

St. Pauli won their first game at home this season 3-2 against Nuremberg to jump to sixth place in the league with 13 points.

Werder Bremen are 11th with 11 points after a 2-1 victory at home over Freiburg.