Champions Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1 courtesy of some bad goalkeeping on Saturday to climb up to fifth place on 23 points from 14 games in the Bundesliga.
Frankfurt keeper Oka Nikolov twice failed to hold on to long-range shots in the space of two minutes, allowing Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez to score on the rebound and seal a victory that will give coach Louis van Gaal some respite.
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who added a fourth late on, had given them a 29th minute lead before Bundesliga top scorer Fanis Gekas levelled four minutes later with his 12th goal of the season with Bayern's back line again looking out of sorts.
Bayer Leverkusen squandered a two-goal lead and conceded a stoppage time penalty to allow Gylfi Sigurdsson to level 2-2 for Hoffenheim, missing the chance to close in on second-placed Mainz 05, who beat Nuremberg 3-0 on Friday.
Leverkusen stayed in third place on 26 points, four behind Mainz.
Leaders Borussia Dortmund, on 34, are in action against bottom-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach later on Saturday.
Hanover 96 continued their spectacular season, beating Freiburg 3-0 to remain fourth, a point off Leverkusen, while Schalke 04 slumped to a 5-0 defeat at Kaiserslautern, only three days after they advanced in the Champions League.
Schalke are stuck in 15th spot, two points of the relegation zone on 13 points.
Hamburg SV beat 10-men VfB Stuttgart 4-2, ending a two-game losing streak and substitute Ruud van Nistlerooy netting his fifth goal of the season, to move up to seventh on 21 points.
