MUNICH - Bayern Munich were surprisingly held to a goalless draw at home to lowly Duisburg on Saturday but remain top of the Bundesliga after nearest challengers Werder Bremen went down 4-3 at Hannover.
The 0-0 scoreline at the Allianz Arena came despite Duisburg being reduced to 10 men for the last 10 minutes following the dismissal of Mohamadou Idrissou.
It meant second-placed Bremen could have taken over at the summit, but they came away from Hannover empty-handed despite playing their part in an entertaining match.
Markus Rosenberg opened the scoring for the visitors after 10 minutes but Mike Hanke (two) and a Frank Baumann own goal had the hosts 3-1 up before the midway point in the first half.
Diego pulled one back from the penalty spot just before half-time and then Rosenberg's second nine minutes after the interval restored parity.
But, 13 minutes from time, Hanke completed his hat-trick to ensure all three points for Hannover.
The visitors' miserable afternoon was compounded when substitute Hugo Almeida - who had only been on the field for 10 minutes - was dismissed just before full-time.
Third-placed Hamburg did not capitalise on the top two's failure to win as they could only draw 0-0 at home to basement boys Energie Cottbus.
There was no happy return to Stuttgart for Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath as the champions strolled to a 3-1 win.
Ciprian Marica and Cacau put the home team two goals to the good and, although Edin Dzeko's effort threatened to get the Wolves back in it, Thomas Hitzlsperger put paid to those hopes with the third goal four minutes from time.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt and Schalke battled out a 2-2 draw, with Karlsruhe managing the same scoreline from their game at Bochum.
Eintracht were twice ahead in their match thanks to Faton Toski and Ioannis Amanatidis but were twice pegged back by goals from Heiko Westermann.
Stanislav Sestak also hit a brace for Bochum, with Tamas Hajnal and Sebastian Freis notching in between for promoted Karlsruhe.
On Friday night, Christmas came early for a goal-hungry Borussia Dortmund side as they stormed to a 6-1 triumph over woeful Arminia Bielefeld in the Westphalian derby.
Paulo Cesar Tinga gave the hosts the lead before Markus Schuler's own goal doubled their advantage.
Dortmund went goal-crazy in the second half with Mladen Petric nabbing the third before three goals in 12 minutes from Nelson Valdez, Florian Kringe and Giovanni Federico gave them an unassailable lead.
Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller gifted a consolation goal to Oliver Kirch 10 minutes from time.
