On a night when goals were hard to find, one was enough for Bayer Leverkusen, Hannover 96 and Borussia Moenchengladbach to improve their Bundesliga positions.
Leverkusen edged Augsburg while Hannover was slipping past Cologne, results good enough to lift them into second and third place in the table, a point behind leader Bayern Munich. Moenchengladbach's similar 1-0 victory over HSV moved them into sixth, level on points with Hoffenheim and Mainz, two points back of Bayern.
What would have been a welcome victory for VfB Stuttgart slipped away at Dortmund, where Borussia rallied for a 2-2 draw that surely will not have satisfied the home support but will also keep the pressure on Armin Veh's side. VfB led 2-0 but stayed second-bottom of the table when they couldn't hold the advantage.
But Hamburger SV hasn't scored in five matches and their misery continues. With only two points, they remain stuck below Stuttgart at the bottom of the table. It's the second consecutive season when relegation worries could dominate conversation at the famous club which has never dropped out of the top level but needed to win a playoff to avoid that fate last season.
In the night's remaining match, Hertha BSC Berlin edged VfL Wolfsburg 1-0 to get out the lower reaches of the table thanks to a first goal from their transfer window acqusition Salomon Kalou.
Leverkusen's only goal came in the 34th minute when Heung-min Son completed a right-side attack, collecting a Roberto Hilbert pass before finishing to the opposite post. The rain which had slowed the opening half then intensified enough so that referee Guido Winkmann took the teams off the field for about seven minutes just before the interval, but play resumed and finished without incident.
'Gladbach took the lead in the 25th minute with their first real attacking chance of the match. Raffael started the move in the inside right channel, slipping a pass wide right to Andre Hahn, whose cross found Max Kruse to first-time from close range. Kruse's attempt hit the right post but came right back to him for a second-chance which he took while on the ground.
1. FC Cologne had gone 365 league minutes without conceding a goal before Joselu put Hannover ahead with his sixth-minute strike. Leon Andreasen's cross from wide left went through to Jimmy Briand who touched it back across to Joselu for the successful shot on the turn. Cologne had a chance to get level immediately but Yuya Osako, in alone, was beaten by Ron-Robert Zieler, who smothered the close-range shot.
VfB used a pair of Daniel Didavi goals to build the lead against a Dortmund side which continues to struggle to find its attacking flow. The first came from Christian Genter, who wove among three defenders before crossing in the 48th minute. The second, 20 minutes later, happened when Marcel Schmelzer's attempted clearance hit Timo Werner in the chest and went directly to Didavi, alone in front of goal.
Juergen Klopp sent on Adrian Ramos to bolster the attack but it took a sloppy backpass from Oriol Romeu to let Dortmund back into matters. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang profited from the mistake, went in to round keeper Sven Ulreich and score in the 72nd minute.
With Mats Hummels and Joe Gyau also thrown on as late substitutes by Klopp, Dortmund continued to press, finally getting even with four minutes remaining when Ciro Immobile was left unmarked at the far post to a Schmelzer free kick from the left. Ulreich didn't get near it and though Immobile's angle was tight, he had no difficulty side-footing Dortmund even.
