Franck Ribery scored twice and earned a penalty as Bayern Munich reclaimed the Bundesliga lead with a 4-1 win over Werder Bremen on Saturday, while Borussia Dortmund was held 1-1 at Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Ribery opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, but substitute Markus Rosenberg equalized in the 52nd. Thomas Mueller then earned Bayern’s first penalty, which was converted by substitute Arjen Robben in the 69th.
Ribery sealed the win with his second goal in the 77th, and earned another penalty which Robben converted in the 83rd.
In Moenchengladbach, Robert Lewandowski scored for the visitors in the 40th, but Mike Hanke deservedly equalized in the 72nd to preserve Moenchengladbach’s unbeaten record at home and leave both sides one point behind Bayern.
Elsewhere, Hertha Berlin and Hannover drew 1-1 at Kaiserslautern and Freiburg respectively, while Mainz came from behind to draw 2-2 at Wolfsburg.
Stuttgart hosted Cologne in Saturday’s late game.
Ribery scored from Munich’s counterattack after a Bremen free kick, when he ran at the Bremen defense before firing in off the left post after David Alaba found the Frenchman with a crossfield pass.
Rosenberg scored with Werder’s second chance, picking up a pass from former Bayern striker Claudio Pizarro and eluding Luiz Gustavo and Holger Badstuber before unleashing a low 16-meter effort to Manuel Neuer’s right.
Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes brought on Robben with half an hour remaining. Mueller was fouled by Andreas Wolf in the 69th and Robben duly converted his first goal since September.
Ribery claimed his second when Mario Gomez did all the work to get past Sebastian Mielitz, only for Ribery to nip in and tuck the ball into the empty net.
Bremen’s miserable afternoon continued when Aaron Hunt was sent off in the 80th for a bad challenge on Toni Kroos, and Wolf conceded another penalty when he brought down Ribery two minutes later.
Robben stepped up again to double his Bundesliga tally for the season in one afternoon.
Moenchengladbach had to do without rising star Marco Reus, who broke his little toe on his left foot in the 3-0 win at Cologne last weekend.
Tony Jantschke prevented Lewandowski scoring in the 16th, when he cleared the ball from the Poland striker who had the goal at his mercy after eluding the goalkeeper.
Lewandowski scored from Mario Goetze’s corner when he headed beyond the stranded Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who got a hand to the ball.
Hanke equalized when Raul Bobadilla—who played in Reus’ place—sent him through the Dortmund defense to shoot low past Roman Weidenfeller.
First half goals from Mario Mandzukic and Alexander Madlung put Wolfsburg ahead against Mainz, but Andreas Ivanschitz pulled one back from a penalty in the 70th, before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting equalized in the 81st. Wolfsburg midfielder Makoto Hasebe was sent off for a second yellow card in the 87th.
In Kaiserslautern, Hertha defender Roman Hubnik put the home side in front in the fifth minute, when he deflected Christian Tiffert’s harmless cross spectacularly into his own net, but Raffael equalized with his fifth goal of the season in the 14th.
Another own goal gave Hannover the lead in Freiburg, where Felix Bastians turned Mohammed Abdellaoue’s dangerous cross into the wrong net in the 44th, before Papiss Demba Cisse equalized with a fine header in the 67th.
