Borussia Dortmund got over its disappointing Champions League form by routing hapless Cologne 5-0 on Saturday to go second in the Bundesliga.
Shinji Kagawa put the defending champions ahead in the seventh minute, Marcel Schmelzer made it 2-0 in the 25th, and Robert Lewandowski grabbed a pair in the 44th and 49th. Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl capped the rout with a header in the 66th.
Dortmund defender Neven Subotic said he last played in such a one-sided game ''on Playstation'' after his side had 27 shots on goal.
Dortmund is three points behind Bayern Munich, which plays at Hannover on Sunday.
Stuttgart drew 2-2 at Nuremberg to move third on goal difference, as Borussia Moenchengladbach lost 1-0 at Hoffenheim.
Also Saturday, Hertha Berlin drew 0-0 with Mainz and Kaiserslautern beat Freiburg 1-0 to leave the visiting side bottom of the table.
Hamburger SV is a point ahead of Freiburg after a 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg in the late game, Thorsten Fink's first in charge.
His tenure got off to a bad start when Mario Mandzukic rose unchallenged to head Wolfsburg ahead after 68 seconds.
''A pity about the first goal or we would have won,'' Hamburg's goalscorer Mladen Petric said.
Petric and Jose Paolo Guerrero both missed a host of chances to equalize, before the Croat finally scored with a fine finish over Diego Benaglio in the 55th.
Jaroslav Drobny pulled off a stunning save from Mandzukic in the 64th, and Dennis Aogo wasted a chance to win the game for Hamburg in the 88th, when he shot straight at Benaglio.
''We had more possession, more chances, more everything actually,'' Fink said after a much improved showing from Hamburg. ''Perhaps we lacked a pinch of luck in the end.''
Dortmund defender Mats Hummels - whose performance was under scrutiny after Wednesday's 3-1 loss to Olympiakos - chipped the ball over for Kevin Grosskreutz to pick out Kagawa, and the Japan midfielder drilled a shot to the right corner.
Mario Goetze repeatedly caused panic in the Cologne defense, and the 19-year-old playmaker's good work on the right allowed Sven Bender to set up Schmelzer to curl an unstoppable effort past Michael Rensing.
Dortmund maintained the pressure, and Bender timed his run perfectly to beat the offside trap before picking out Lewandowski for an easy tap-in.
There was still time for Neven Subotic to hit the crossbar with a header before the interval, but the effort would have been ruled out for an apparent foul.
Halftime substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski chested the ball forward for Grosskreutz to head into Lewandowski's path for the 23-year-old player to claim his seventh Bundesliga goal of the season.
Kehl and Kagawa both went close before Blaszczykowski crossed for Kehl to wrap up the scoring.
Cologne's first shot on goal came in the 86th, when Lukas Podolski drew a save from Roman Weidenfeller.
''We showed a reaction today,'' Kehl said. ''We were very angry when we came back from Greece on Thursday.''
Nuremberg captain Timmy Simons scored from close range in the 10th, but Philipp Wollscheid was unlucky to concede a penalty in the second half, when Martin Harnik's shot struck the Nuremberg defender's arm as he was going to ground.
''It was a handball,'' said Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia. ''But it was very disputable.''
''It's a joke to give a penalty for that,'' said his counterpart Dieter Hecking. ''If you whistle for that, then good night German football.''
Simons received a yellow card for his protests before Zdravko Kuzmanovic converted the spot kick in the 61st.
Wollscheid provided the perfect response when he scored with a header in the 70th but another defender, Maza, headed the equalizer for Stuttgart in the 84th.
Moenchengladbach has failed to win its last three games. Hoffenheim forward Vedad Ibesevic returned from injury to score the winner in the 56th, sliding in to prod a loose ball under Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
In Kaiserslautern, Itay Shechter hit the crossbar and had a penalty appeal turned down before he finally scored with a header in the 75th.
Oliver Baumann then brought the Israel striker down in the penalty area, but the Freiburg goalkeeper made his first ever Bundesliga penalty save from Christian Tiffert's spot kick.
