Hamburg  - Hertha Berlin on Saturday moved back to the top of the German Bundesliga after beating last-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1.

The club from the capital benefited from Hoffenheim's goalless draw at Borussia Dortmund, that left the surprise team in the league, who are playing in their first season in the top flight on 41 points - two behind Hertha.

Goals by Andrey Voronin and Pal Dardai gave Berlin a comfortable half-time lead, but after Arne Friedrich brought down Marko Marin in the area and Michael Bradley scored from the spot in the 69th minute, Hertha had a tough task on their hands to hold on to their lead.

Moenchengladbach threw caution to the win in the final minutes and would have deserved at least a share of the spoils as Berlin showed none of the form that had taken them to the top of the standings.

Voronin admitted that Hertha were lucky. "It looked as if we simply forgot to play football in the second half. We did not deserve to win like that, but we got the three points."

Josip Simunic added that the team had set itself the goal of winning eight of the remaining 12 matches. "If we manage that, we should be able to challenge right until the end and then we could win the title."

Moenchengladbach's Tobias Levels said it made no difference that his side played much better in the second half. "We lost 2-1 and are returning to Moenchengladbach without any points, that is the bottom line."

His coach was also disappointed. "We have nothing to be proud about. If we don't win a game like this, there is nothing that I can take from this match," said Hans Meyer.

In Dortmund, Hoffenheim and the home side both ended the game with 10 men after referee Herbert Fandel rather harshly sent off Tobias Weis and Sebastian Kehl in the second half.

Hoffenheim coach Juergen Klopp said there were many refereeing decisions during the game he could not understand. "Kehl's second booking was ridiculous and Weis should also not have been sent off."

Hoffenheim's Andreas Beck said that the side was trying to win matches, but was just not having any luck. "Maybe we need to win a game with a bad 1-0 and then we can get back to our winning ways."

Bayer Leverkusen failed to close the gap on the leaders going down 1-0 at struggling Hanover 96, with the only goal of the game being scored by Arnold Bruggink.

Schalke 04 managed a somewhat lucky 2-1 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt that sees them go to 34 points and keeps them challenging for an UEFA Cup place.

Rafinha gave the visitors the lead shortly before the break when Frankfurt goalkeeper Markus Proell let the ball slip under his body.

Michael Fink equalized with just nine minutes to go for the home side, but German international Heiko Westermann gave his side the three points just two minutes later after Proell failed to come out to intercept a cross.

At the wrong end of the table, VfL Bochum twice came from behind to beat Energie Cottbus 3-2 to move to 14th in the table, while the visitors move down into the relegation zone in 16th.

Ivica Iliev gave Cottbus an ideal start in the 2nd minute before Cameroon international Joel Epalle leveled matters in the 12th minute.

Emil Jula then gave Cottbus the lead again five minutes after the restart but Christian Fuchs and a converted penalty ten minutes from the end scored by Marc Pfertzel turned matters around.

On Sunday, SV Hamburg could move to the top of the table with a victory at home in the northern Germany derby against VfL Wolfsburg, while Bayern Munich are away to Werder Bremen.

The final game on Sunday sees VfB Stuttgart travel to Karslruhe SC.

On Friday Cologne and Arminia Bielefeld played to a 1-1 draw. (dpa)