Two goals from the seemingly unstoppable Robert Lewandowski helped Bayern Munich banish the nightmare of last week's thrashing by Eintracht Frankfurt that led to the sacking of Niko Kovac.
Six days after Bayern's heaviest Bundesliga defeat for over 10 years in losing 5-1 to Eintracht, Bayern hammered old rivals Borussia Dortmund 4-0 at the Allianz Arena to move up to third and a point behind leaders Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Poland striker Lewandowski scored the first and third goals in the 17th and 76th minutes to take his tally to a remarkable 26 in 22 games for club and country this season.
Serge Gnabry added a VAR-confirmed second just after the break, with a Mats Hummels own goal 10 minutes from time compounding Dortmund's misery.
Second-placed RB Leipzig are also a point behind Moenchengladbach following a come-from-behind 4-2 win at Hertha Berlin.
They were made to do it the hard way at the Olympiastadion, however, as the home side opened the scoring with a stunning strike from Maxi Mittelstadt just after the half hour.
Hertha's lead was shortlived, though, as six minutes later Timo Werner slotted home the equaliser from the penaty spot after VAR confirmed a handball against Karim Rekik, with Marcel Sabitzer giving the visitors the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Leipzig had to wait until late on to seal the points via goals from Kevin Kampl and Werner's 11th of the season, with Davie Selke's added-time strike nothing more than a consolation.
Union Berlin almost threw away a three-goal lead as they held on to beat Mainz 3-2 at the Coface Arena.
Daniel Brosinski's own goal on the half hour sparked Mainz's downfall, that was completed by a double either side of the interval from Sebastian Andersson to take the Sweden international's tally for the season to six.
Karim Onisiwo pulled one back in the 81st minute, with Brosinksi adding a second in the fourth minute of added time, only for Union to claim a third victory in their last four league games to lift themselves up to mid-table.
Rouwen Hennings scored a 23-minute second-half hat-trick as Fortuna Dusseldorf came from behind on three occasions to salvage a point from a 3-3 draw at Schalke, who missed the chance to move into the top four.
Goals from Daniel Caligiuri, Ozan Kabak and Suat Serdar all gave Schalke the lead at various stages, only for Hennings to equalise every time, with his first from the spot, and his hat-trick goal coming five minutes from time for his 11th of the season.
SC Paderborn remain rooted to the foot of the table after suffering a ninth league defeat of the campaign, with Philipp Max scoring the only goal of the game in Augsburg's 1-0 win at the Benteler-Arena.
Follow Sporting Life on social media - find us on Facebook here or tweet @SportingLifeFC
Related football links
