Schalke hold 10-man Bayern, Wolfsburg draw

Dante and Sebastian Rode - two of the major culprits from Bayern's defeat to Wolfsburg - were replaced by Mehdi Benatia and Mitchell Weiser, respectively. Despite what head coach Roberto di Matteo said before the game, Schalke sat quite deep in the opening quarter of an hour as Bayern controlled possession.

The game burst into life when Jerome Boateng made a glaring error in defense, chopping down Sidney Sam in the box after missing the chance to clear. Boateng saw red but Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting's penalty was soft and Manuel Neuer saved low to his left.

Bayern were on the back foot, but Schalke couldn't find another opening. Arjen Robben cut in, but curled wide as the first half came to an unexpected, goalless end.

With second-choice goalkeeper Fabian Giefer picking up a thigh injury, 19-year-old Timon Wellenreuther came on for his Bundesliga debut at the start of the second 45 minutes. Schalke's number 40 was called into action, palming away a fierce near-post effort from Robben as Bayern sought a goal despite their numerical disadvantage.

Robert Lewandowski, on for Bayern, thought he broke the deadlock when his deflected effort squeezed in at the near post but the goal was correctly ruled out because the ball was out of play when the cross went in. It mattered little though, as Robben headed in from the resulting corner to give Bayern the lead and punish Schalke for their negativity.

That all changed when Schalke captain Benedikt Höwedes sent a superb header across goal from a corner to equalize, sending the visiting fans into raptures. Lewandowski nearly won it at the death, but the striker's excellent first touch was followed by a poor shot.

Herrmann the match-winner, again

Despite starting the second half of their season off with a thumping win, Freiburg were very slow to start in Gladbach. The hosts had three excellent chances to take the lead inside the opening ten minutes. Branimir Hrgota, Patrick Herrmann and Granit Xhaka couldn't find a way past Roman Bürki, and when they did they fired wide of the goal.

Gladbach stayed on top, although Nils Petersen did have the ball in the back of the net only for it to be correctly ruled out for offside. Soon afterwards, Lucien Favre's side finally took one of their chances, but not without the help of their visitors. Christian Günter missed the ball while attempting to clear, leaving Patrick Herrmann to fire into the far corner. Hrgota then missed another chance after some fine feet got the Swede into the area, as did Nils Petersen who was denied by Yann Sommer.

Freiburg improved in the second half, but couldn't really test Yann Sommer until late on - Jonathan Schmid fired straight at the goalkeeper inside the box.

Dazzling De Bruyne saves point

After his scoring heroics against Bayern, Bas Dost was in a confident mood as Wolfsburg traveled to Frankfurt. Sadly, the Dutch striker fired wide with his first chance in the Commerzbank Arena. The Bundesliga's leading scorer, Alex Meier, had a chance saved by Diego Benaglio in the early exchanges.

Aaron Hunt came on in the second half, but it was lovely combination play from the hosts that brought the opening goal. Takashi Inui broke free and surged forward before playing the perfectly weighted pass for Stefan Aigner to calmly slot across goal into the far corner.

Ivan Perisic saw his shot blocked, Benaglio saved from Meier and then Dost headed over, as the two teams exchanged blows. With three minutes left, Marcel Schäfer pulled it back for Kevin de Bruyne who calmly slotted home to equalize with just two minutes left.

All square in Hannover

Hannover on top as Mainz returned to their poor, away form. After Joselu looked to have a goal wrongly ruled out for offside, Jimmy Briand curled in the opener from a corner after Loris Karius' punch landed on his feet.

Johannes Geis beat Ron-Robert Zieler but his curling effort clipped the inside of the post and bounced wide. Hannover's goalkeeper was on hand to palm away another Geis effort moments later as Mainz slowly began to find their feet as the game neared the hour mark. Elkin Soto and Nicolas Castillo came on for Christian Clemens and Sami Allagui as Kasper Hjulmand sought an equaliser.

And one of his substitutes proved the answer too as Soto tapped in a rebound following Daniel Brosinski's effort. Hannover looked the more likely of scoring a winner, but the spoils were shared.