Werder Bremen won 6-0 in Freiburg with five second-half goals to pull past idle Bayer Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Defending champions Wolfsburg lost 3-2 at home to Nuremberg, VfB Stuttgart rallied to rescue a 1-1 draw against bottom-placed Hertha Berlin, Hoffenheim jumped to fourth place by winning 4-0 in Cologne and Borussia Moenchengladbach also won on the road, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1.
In the late match, Mainz earned a 0-0 draw at Borussia Dortmund.
Hannover 96 lost their first game after the suicide of captain and goalkeeper Robert Enke, going down 2-0 at Schalke 04, who moved into third place. A minute of silence was held at all stadiums in memory of Enke, who threw himself in front of a train on Nov. 10 after suffering from depression for six years.
Jefferson Farfan scored in the 69th minute and Jan Moravek got the insurance goal in injury-time to help Schalke beat Hannover.
Hannover players had a small No. 1 printed on the front of their shirts in memory of Enke. Goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz, who had been Enke’s understudy, was given a big round of applause before kickoff. Fromlowitz made some good saves, but was helpless when Farfan connected with a powerful header following a corner from Rafinha. Moravek scored his first Bundesliga goal from a counterattack shortly after coming on as a late substitute.
The victory was the first for Felix Magath’s team after three straight draws.
Mesut Oezil scored one goal, set up three and earned a penalty to lead Werder Bremen past Freiburg and stretch his team’s unbeaten run to 20 games in all competitions. Bremen have 26 points and lead on goal difference over Leverkusen.
Despite playing without injured striker Claudio Pizarro, Werder piled on the pressure from the kickoff. They missed several chances and hit the post twice, before Hugo Almeida connected with a header from a cross by Oezil in the 33rd minute.
Marko Marin scored with a free-kick from an acute angle to double Bremen’s lead and launch the visitors’ second-half barrage. Almeida had another goal, Oezil scored himself and then earned the penalty converted by Naldo, before Markus Rosenberg completed the rout.
Peer Kluge scored on a counterattack in the third minute of injury-time to secure Nuremberg victory at VfL Wolfsburg.
Nuremberg outplayed the defending champions, leading twice on goals from Albert Bunjaku. Wolfsburg rallied both times with a goal from Ashkan Dejagah and a penalty from Grafite, before Kluge sealed the upset.
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