Borussia Dortmund extended its winning streak to six games in the Bundesliga on Sunday with a 2-0 victory at home to Bayern Munich, sending the reigning champion into the international team break in a mini crisis.
Dortmund tightened its grip on second place with 18 points from seven matches, three points behind surprise leader Mainz before the Bundesliga takes a two-week break.
Lucas Barrios opened the scoring in the 52nd minute and Nuri Sahin doubled the advantage on the hour mark. Barrios also hit the post in the 69th minute for Dortmund, which lost during the week at home to Sevilla in the Europa League.
Bayern has now won just once in the last six Bundesliga matches and is 12th in the Bundesliga with just eight points 13 points behind Mainz and 10 points behind Dortmund. Louis van Gaal's men have scored just five goals this season, and one of those was an own goal.
Coming off a Champions League victory over Basel during the week, Bayern had more chances in the first half. Mario Gomez, making his first start for Bayern since April, shot wide in the seventh minute, had another effort stopped by Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller in the 41st and headed wide left four minutes later.
Dortmund grabbed the lead when a throw-in landed at the feet of Barrios, whose shot from 14 meters was deflected off Bayern defender Holger Badstuber and past keeper Hans Joerg Butt.
Sahin made it 2-0 in the 60th minute, tucking his free kick into the upper right corner from the right side.
Just two places below Dortmund in the table is Bayer Leverkusen, which settled for a 2-2 draw at home against Werder Bremen to move into fourth place with 12 points.
Patrick Helmes gave Helmes the lead in the 16th minute but second-half goals from Hugo Almeida and Marko Marin pushed Bremen in front until Eren Derdiyok leveled in the 78th minute.
Bremen, coming off a 4-0 loss against Inter Milan in the Champions League, has still not won away in the Bundesliga this season and is 13th with eight points.
Stuttgart stayed rooted to the bottom of the table after a 2-1 defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt added to its nightmare start to the season.
Fanis Gekas scored the opener for Frankfurt in the 18th minute and Chris doubled the advantage in the 68th.
Stuttgart captain Matthieu Delpierre was red-carded for a reckless challenge on Patrick Ochs in the 84th minute, but teammate Pavel Pogrebnyak was still able to pull a goal back for his side a minute later.
In a frantic finale, Stuttgart had a potential equalizer disallowed and hit the woodwork twice.
The loss was Stuttgart's sixth in its first seven Bundesliga matches and leaves Christian Gross's side with just three points, while Frankfurt moved up to mid-table.
