Point against Schalke puts Hamburg back on top

Germany winger Piotr Trochowski scored his second consecutive goal of the week as Hamburg went back to the top of the Bundesliga with a 1-1 draw at home to Schalke 04 on Sunday.

Hoffenheim had briefly knocked Hamburg from top spot on Saturday with a 5-2 win over Hanover, but Hamburg's draw with Schalke gave Martin Jol's side the single point needed to go top.

Fresh from scoring the winner in Germany's 1-0 win over Wales in their World Cup qualifier on Wednesday in Moenchengladbach, Hamburg forward Trochowski used his deadly right-foot to great effect again when he fired home on 29 minutes.

But Schalke 04 levelled just three minutes after the break when defender Benedikt Hoewedes got on the end of a freekick from Jefferson Farfan to head his shot past Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost.

There was plenty of vocal support from Schalke fans when Royal Blues striker Kevin Kuranyi was substituted on 62 minutes in his first appearance since walking out on Germany the week before during the 2-1 win over Russia.

Hamburg should have taken the lead seconds later when substitute Mladen Petric smashed his shot straight onto the post and could only watch as the ball rebounded past him to safety.

The draw leaves Hamburg a point clear on 17 points with Schalke sixth in the table.

On Saturday, Germany striker Miroslav Klose struck just four minutes from time to give defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over Karlsruhe on Saturday — their first victory in four league games.

Klose converted Italian defender Massimo Oddo's cross on 86 minutes to give Jurgen Klinsmann's side three league points for the first time this month despite another unimpressive performance which leaves Bayern 11th.

With Bayern facing Fiorentina in the Champions League on Tuesday, coach Jurgen Klinsmann badly needed this result.

“We've failed to perform in our last two or three league games, but we're playing twice this week and it was good to start the sequence with an away win,” said the ex-Germany coach.

Hoffenheim finish the weekend second in the table after a flurry of late goals saw them seal a 5-2 victory at ten-man Hanover.

Two goals from Hoffenheim's Vedad Ibisevic led the charge and made the Bosnian and Herzegovina striker the league's top scorer with nine so far this season.

And Bayer Leverkusen moved up one place to third in the league thanks to their 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt, the league's bottom side.

Striker Patrick Helmes scored his eighth league goal of the season when he converted a penalty after just six minutes and a 61st minute header from Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal sealed the win.

VfB Stuttgart drop from third to seventh in the table after losing 2-1 in the German capital with Hertha Berlin, who move up to fourth.

Wolfsburg picked up their first league win for nearly a month as midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic netted first-half goals as the home side routed Arminia Bielefeld 4-1 to put Felix Magath's side fifth in the league from ninth.

And ten-man Energie Cottbus lost 1-0 at Cologne to stay in the bottom three while Dortmund scored in injury time to seal a 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen.

And on Friday night, Borussia Moenchengladbach, who have former Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer at the helm, picked up their first point in five games when they drew 2-2 at VfL Bochum.