French star Franck Ribery scored on Sunday to seal a 2-1 win at Schalke 04 to put defending champions Bayern Munich in touch with the leaders.
Despite missing the first five games of the season through injury, Ribery is back to his best and his first-half strike in Gelsenkirchen put Bayern third.
Hoffenheim dropped to second in the table by virtue of their 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin as Bayer Leverkusen took over as league leaders with a superior goal difference.
PHOTO: AFP
But with five wins from their last five league games Bayern are now on 24 points, just one behind Hoffenheim and Bayer.
Bayern took the lead in the third minute when Luca Toni fired home from close range.
Schalke replied almost immediately when Jefferson Farfan slotted a shot past Bayern keeper Michael Rensing after five minutes.
Ribery then linked up with Ze Roberto to score on 31 minutes and give the visitors the three points.
Having won their previous five league games, Hoffenheim were brought back to earth when they lost 1-0 in Berlin.
Poor defending by Hoffenheim gave Hertha striker Andriy Voronin a simple one-on-one with the Hoffenheim goalkeeper on 70 minutes and he made no mistake.
Also on Sunday, Mario Gomez scored a late header to seal a 2-2 draw for VfB Stuttgart against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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