Bayern thrash Hamburg, Wolfsburg in remarkable win
Bayern Munich inflicted another humiliating defeat on Hamburg at the Allianz Arena to remain firmly on course to retain their Bundesliga title.
Two years after thrashing Hamburg 9-2 at home, the goals flooded in again as braces from Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben and Mario Gotze plus further strikes from Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribery saw the reigning champions run out 8-0 winners. The victory keeps Bayern eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, while also setting them up in style for the return to UEFA Champions League action against Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek.
Bas Dost was Wolfsburg's hero as he netted four in a remarkable 5-4 win at Bayer Leverkusen to keep Dieter Hecking's men in touch with Bayern. It was three and easy for Wolfsburg at the interval with Dost netting two and Naldo also on target.
However, a second-half hat-trick from Son Heung-Min, after Dost had completed his hat-trick, and a Karim Bellarabi strike saw Leverkusen get back on terms. They lost Emir Spahic to a late red card and Dost had the final say with his fourth deep in stoppage time snatching all three points for the visitors.
Werder Bremen made it five wins in a row, inflicting the first defeat of 2015 on Augsburg with a 3-2 win at the Weser Stadion. Assani Lukimya's opener was cancelled out by Ragnar Klavan, who then gave away the penalty which allowed Franco Di Santo to put Bremen back in front. Theodor Gebre Selassie added a third for Viktor Skripnik's side, while Tobias Werner's late second for Augsburg was nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.
Former Stuttgart defender Sebastian Rudy left his former club rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga table with his late goal earning Hoffenheim in a 2-1 Baden-Wurttemberg derby win. Roberto Firmino gave Markus Gisdol's men the lead, but Gotoku Sakai's deflected effort allowed Huub Stevens' men to level.
Hoffenheim tried harder to win it and they succeeded with practically the last kick of the game to pick up their first win of 2015 and leave Stuttgart still searching for theirs, and looking up at the rest of the division for at least another week.
Borussia Monchengladbach left it late to clinch their third 1-0 win of the year and take local bragging rights in the Rhineland derby against Koln. Granit Xhaka struck in second-half stoppage time to earn Lucien Favre's side victory as the Swiss coach marked four years in charge of the club in style.
Schalke saw their promising start to the new year ended by Eintracht Frankfurt as the distraction of a midweek Champions League tie with Real Madrid appeared to be too great for Roberto Di Matteo's men.
Lucas Piazon scored the only goal of the game in the 64th minute as Frankfurt coach Thomas Schaaf marked his 500th game on the touchline with a win.