Lukas Podolski scored twice to inspire Cologne to a 3-0 win over visiting Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga and lift his side provisionally to safety on Saturday.
Earlier, Mario Gomez scored a hat trick in a 5-1 win for Bayern Munich at home to Kaiserslautern.
Munich climbed to third, 14 points behind leader Borussia Dortmund, which was held to 1-1 by visiting Stuttgart.
Podolski opened the scoring in the sixth minute. Fabrice Ehret beat Bremen's offside trap on the left before pulling the ball back for the Germany international to strike it first time past Tim Wiese into the bottom right hand corner.
Adam Matuschyk doubled the advantage when he gathered a pass from Andrezinho on the edge of the penalty area, feigned one way past Torsten Frings and Petri Pasanan before unleashing a perfect shot to the left past Wiese. Podolski grabbed his second - his seventh of the season - late in the game.
Bayern's Gomez became the league's joint topscorer with 15. His goals came after Arjen Robben - making his first appearance at home for eight months after recovering from injury - opened the scoring at the end of the first half with his first of the season. The Dutch winger received a wonderful crossfield pass from Thomas Mueller, smartly rounded the advancing goalkeeper, and stroked the ball into the unguarded net with his right foot.
Gomez doubled the lead at the beginning of the second - to equal the 86 goals scored for Bayern by watching club president Uli Hoeness - but Jan Moravek pulled a goal back for Kaiserslautern against the run of play following a defensive error from Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.
Gomez then went two better than Hoeness before Mueller completed Bayern's spree in the 90th minute.
"We're third," Munich coach Louis van Gaal said. "I think we're on the right path."
Elsewhere, Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a late equalizer for Stuttgart at Dortmund. The Russian struck a powerful shot to the top right hand corner after being set up by a clever back-flick from Zdravo Kuzmanovic. It left Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp fuming on the sideline.
His side missed a number of opportunities to increase the lead taken through rising star Mario Goetze's first-half goal.
Nuri Sahin helped set up the 18-year-old's goal, when he flicked a pass from Mats Hummels first time into the path of Kevin Grosskreutz. The attacking midfielder crossed for the advancing Goetze to control the ball with his left before placing the ball with his right past goalkeeper Sven Ulreich.
"It shouldn't happen that we are hit on the counterattack five minutes before the end," Hummels said. "But it's much worse that we missed four or five 100-percent chances because we weren't focused."
Klopp said: "We got many turnovers and played too anxiously. We let in a counterattacking goal while winning 1-0 in our own stadium - that says everything. Of course the lads are disappointed now, but we will look at it calmly."
Raul Gonzalez scored the only goal for Schalke at second-place Hannover, where he met a Lukas Schmitz cross in the penalty box in the first half. It was the Spaniard's 10th goal of the season.
Hannover should have equalized in the second half when Didier Ya Konan set the ball back for Mohammed Abdellaoue, who blasted his shot from 16 meters (yards) to the right.
Manuel Neuer twice came to Schalke's rescue, the Germany goalkeeper denying Sergio Pinto and Emanuel Pogatetz in quick succession.
"It was really great that we could put Schalke under so much pressure," said Hannover coach Mirko Slomka. "We just didn't get deserved reward. Manuel Neuer was outstanding at times."
Schalke coach Felix Magath said he demanded a good game from his players. "In the second half we showed that we cannot only play, but fight too. The chase starts now."
Magath's side move up to 10th, with two more points than Wolfsburg, which broke a streak of seven draws in a row to finally win at Mainz.
Simon Kjaer headed in the only goal from a Diego free kick to ease the pressure on coach Steve McClaren.
Freiburg drew 1-1 with visiting Nuremberg, with Julian Schieber scoring a stunning equalizer for the visitors. Schieber volleyed a thunderous effort from the right edge of the penalty area in off the underside of the crossbar.
Bayer Leverkusen could cut the gap at the top to 11 points with a win at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday, when St. Pauli travels to Hoffenheim.
