Hamburg - Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday moved back to the top of the Bundesliga standings after playing to a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich. The win takes Leverkusen to 27 points, one more than Werder Bremen and two more than Schalke 04. Bayern, who were jeered by their fans at the end of the game, are seventh on 21 points.
Like all other league matches in Germany on the weekend, the game started with a minute of silence for Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke, who committed suicide earlier in the month.
A short video was also shown on the giant screen and players from both sides wore black armbands.
Germany striker Mario Gomez had given the home side an early lead in the 8th minute when he ran on to a Miroslav Klose through-ball and sliced the ball past Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler.
It took the visitors just six minutes to level matter when Stefan Kiessling scored after a quick break-away, which Arturo Vidal set up with a pass through the middle from inside his own half.
Both sides had several opportunities to increase their score, but Adler pulled off a magnificent save from Anatoliy Tymoschuk, while Kiessling missed twice for Leverkusen.
Gomez thought he had given Bayern victory six minutes from the end with a spectacular and cheeky backheel from close range that had goal written all over it, only to see Adler somehow manage to dive to his right and deny the striker.
Adler, who swopped his jersey with Gomez after the game said that he told Kiessling that one goal against him was enough. "His first already showed all his class, but I told him that one spectacular goal per game is enough.
"I think we showed quite clearly that we are one of the top teams. I do not think that we will fall apart towards the end of the season as we have done previously. We showed that we could have even won this match and to go to Bayern and nearly win shows that we will challenge."
Bayern defender Philipp Lahm said he was not satisfied with the result. "I am disappointed. We wanted to close the gap and we did not manage that.
"I think we simply are not good enough towards the end of the game and that is something we need to change. If we do not change that, it will be very difficult to catch up with those at the top."
He said that being seventh is not good enough for a club like Bayern. "Of course we cant be satisfied with seventh place and we need to do better than that."
On Saturday Werder Bremen had temporarily moved to the top of the standings with an emphatic 6-0 victory at SC Freiburg.
Schalke, who beat Hanover 96 2-0, are third, but can lose that place if SV Hamburg manage to beat VfL Bochum at home in Sunday's late game.
Also on Saturday the champions VfL Wolfsburg lost 3-2 at home to Nuremberg, while Cologne were trounced 4-0 in their own stadium by Hoffenheim.
Bottom-placed Hertha Berlin managed a 1-1 draw at VfB Stuttgart, but are still seven points adrift.
