Bayern Munich staged a bright start against Nuremberg, as Mario Mandzukic shocked the hosts when he scored his ninth goal of the season at the second post, following a diagonal pass by Toni Kroos from the right wing.

Nuremberg needed twenty minutes to recover from the early setback as Timo Gebhart and Markus Feulner approached Bayern Munich's goal with their efforts. Nonetheless the German record champions controlled the proceedings on the pitch to take the neat lead into the break.

After the break Nuremberg's Markus Feulner flabbergasted his former club when he overcame Bayern goalie Manuel Neuer with a fulminant shot from 30 meters to equalize the score.

From then on the hosts were able to create a bunch of scoring opportunities through Sebastian Polter and Per Nilsson as Bayern were still dazed by the leveller. In the closing period Nuremberg's Timo Gebhart was sent off for repeated foul play.

Bayern pressed for the winner against ten men Nuremberg but yet all their efforts remained fruitless.

Thus Bayern dropped points for the second time this season whereas Nuremberg wrapped up a decent result for their season.

"We can live with the 1-1 draw but we failed to exploit our chances," Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said.

Schalke failed to narrow the gap with the Bavarians as they lost 2-0 to Leverkusen after a poor performance. The "Knappen" staged a passive performance against offensively minded Leverkusen that had the upper hand over ninety minutes.

The dominant Leverkusen opened the scoring before the break following a goal by Andre Schuerrle.

After the break Leverkusen started where they left off against harmless Schalke, consequently Stefan Kiessling added the second goal to their lead to seal the deal ahead of time.

Kiessling had the chance to triple the lead from the penalty spot but goalkeeper Lars Unnerstall denied his attempt.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos ensured the only highlight for Schalke when he booked his second yellow card for repeated foul play.

Defending champions Borussia Dortmund sealed their sixth win of the season following a dominant 3-1 performance over newly promoted Greuther Fuerth.

Dortmund's top striker Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring, with three minutes into the match, when he exploited an assist by Mario Goetze from six meters.

The visitors responded immediately with the equalizer through Zoltan Stieber, who chipped past Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller.

Dortmund returned to the winning ways when Lewandowski sealed his brace from the spot following a foul play to Jakub Blaszczykowski at the 15th minute.

However, the "Borussen" were not done with the scoring as Mario Goetze marked the final 3-1 score after a solo run and goal, three minutes before the break.

Elsewhere, stunners Frankfurt overcame Augsburg 4-2 thanks to two goals by Alexander Meier, who extended his goal tally to nine goals. Freiburg defeated Hannover 2-1 thanks to the winner by Jan Rosenthal. Stuttgart came from behind to win 2-1 at Monchengladbach owing to the own goal by Roel Brouwers and Mainz lost 1-0 to Hamburg due to the decider by Heung Min-Son.