Hamburg - Bayer Leverkusen wasted a 2-0 lead in a 2-2 draw at Schalke 04 but retained the Bundesliga lead on a terrible Saturday for the favourites. Toni Kroos and Stefan Kiessling were on target for Bayer, but Schalke salvaged the draw in the final seven minutes from Kevin Kuranyi and Vicente Sanchez.
Leverkusen have 23 points to lead from northern German rivals Werder Bremen and SV Hamburg, on 22 each. Schalke are on 21, Bayern Munich have 19 and champions VfL Wolfsburg 18.
Hamburg crashed to a first season defeat, 3-2 at home against Borussia Moenchengladbach, Bremen salvaged an injury-time 2-2 draw at Nuremberg, Munich were held 0-0 at VfB Stuttgart and Wolfsburg threw away a 2-0 and 3-2 lead in a 3-3 draw with Mainz 05.
Schalke fought back from 2-0 and 3-2 down to a 3-3 draw with Hamburg last week, and Felix Magath's team found themselves 2-0 down again on Saturday.
Leverkusen took the lead when Kroos volleyed home from 20 metres after Schalke failed to clear a corner kick decisively on the half-hour mark. Kiessling doubled the advantage shortly before the break with a header.
But Schalke came back out of nowhere after Leverkusen defender Sami Hyypia limped off. Kuranyi poked home in an 83rd-minute goalmouth scramble and Sanchez headed the equalizer over Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler in the 88th.
"We threw away the win. We ad some problems in the air after Sami went out," said Adler, who himself did not look good on the equalizer.
Leverkusen are the only unbeaten team now in the league after Hamburg met disaster against Moenchengladbach even though Germany midfielder Piotr Trochowski fired a low shot into the net from 13m for a 1-0 lead and Ze Roberto's freekick put them 2-1 up.
The visitors scored from Marco Reus in the 39th after a fine display of one-touch football, Dante headed the 2-2 equalizer in the 72nd and Rob Friend's low shot 10 minutes later secured a surprise victory for courageous Moenchengladbach.
"This is really annoying," said Hamburg captain David Jarolim. "You must win if you lead twice at home."
Bremen stretched their unbeaten record to 17 competitive matches, and moved ahead of Hamburg on goal-difference, since losing the Bundesliga opener to Eintracht Frankfurt.
In-form Aaron Hunt headed home in the 72nd and then struck from the edge of the area two minutes into injury time for the final score after Nuremberg had led 2-0 from first-half goals by Christian Eigler and Albert Bunjaku.
Chances were sparse in Stuttgart where the hosts finally got a draw after losing their last five competitive games, while Munich's slight upwards trend did not continue.
Christian Traesch wasted the best chance for the hosts early on while Luca Toni was off target for Munich with 20 minutes left.
"I would have liked to have won. We could have taken a big step forward because the other top teams didn't win," said striker Mario Gomez, who moved from Stuttgart to Munich in summer.
Cologne crashed 1-0 at home against Hanover in the other afternoon game while Borussia Dortmund beat bottom club Hertha Berlin 2-0 on Friday. The Sunday games are SC Freiburg vs TSG Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt vs VfL Bochum.
