Hertha Berlin defeated Cologne 2-1 to move level on points with Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich yesterday while Ingolstadt held Borussia Dortmund 3-3 to move off the bottom of the table.
Goals from Vedad Ibisevic and Niklas Stark earned Hertha the victory despite Anthony Modeste’s league-best eighth goal of the season for the guests.
Hertha trail Bayern on goal difference after their best-ever start to a Bundesliga campaign before Borussia Moenchengladbach head to Munich for the late game.
Christian Pulisic’s injury time equalizer rescued a point for Dortmund in a six-goal thriller but winless Ingolstadt still move above new bottom-team SV Hamburg on goal difference.
Dortmund are sixth. In the other games, Hoffenheim won 3-0 at Bayer Leverkusen, Darmstadt beat Wolfsburg 3-1 and Freiburg edged Augsburg 2-1.
Hertha enjoyed some luck early on as Mitchell Weiser went unpunished for winning the ball with his hand and he subsequently crossed for Ibisevic to open the scoring in the 13th minute.
Modeste tapped home from close-range in the 65th but Stark’s header from a woefully defended set piece kept all three points in Berlin as previously unbeaten Cologne twice struck the woodwork late on.
“The first half was good, in the second Cologne were better,” said Hertha coach Pal Dardai. “After the 1-1 equalizer we showed our morale. The final minutes were a little chaotic.”
Ingolstadt quickly took command against Dortmund as near identical free kicks from Markus Suttner on the left wing were converted by Almog Cohen and Dario Lezcano in the first half.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang cut the deficit in 59 minutes only for Lezecano to restore the advantage 60 seconds later.
Adrian Ramos set up a frantic finale and Pulisic’s late strike kept Dortmund in the last of the automatic European places.
“We weren’t ready to play Bundesliga football in the first half,” Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said. “We’ve been really lucky to score the late equalizer.”
Ingolstadt remain in the automatic drop-zone but skip Hamburg, who lost 3-0 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday.
“I’m really proud of my team and we’ve seen that we’re on the right way,” Ingolstadt boss Markus Kauczinski said. “We have to accept the late equalizer.”
Hoffenheim went third with a convincing victory in Leverkusen which was aided by their former striker Kevin Volland being sent off for denying a scoring opportunity in just five minutes.
Kerem Demirbay, Sandro Wagner and Steven Zuber all found the net as 10-man Leverkusen were overrun as they sank to 11th.
Wolfsburg’s temporary coach Valerien Ismael failed to turn his team’s fortunes as Jeffrey Bruma was sent off following a careless mistake in Darmstadt.
Aenis Ben-Hatira curled home the opener from the resulting free kick and though Mario Gomez equalized with his first for the club, Laszlo Kleinheisler and Sandro Sirigu earned the win.
Darmstadt went 13th with the victory while Wolfsburg are now 15th, just one spot above the relegation play-off place.
Newcomers Freiburg moved up to eighth as second half goals from Maximilian Philipp and Nils Peters edged out midtable Augsburg, who replied late on through Halil Altintop.