Bayern Munich edged closer to retaining the Bundesliga title on Saturday, but wins for Borussia Dortmund and Schalke ensured the race is still alive for a few more days.
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caption:Bayern players celebrate after a hard-fought win at Mainz leaves them closer to league glory.
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Bayern Munich extended their winning streak in the league to 18 games after a late 2-0 triumph at Mainz.
After suffering for an hour, Die Roten emerged from their shells to show why no German side has managed to beat them in 51 attempts, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Goetze sealing victory with goals inside the final 10 minutes.
Dortmund, meanwhile, kept their slim hopes alive and plunged Hannover into relegation danger with a 3-0 win at the Niedersachsenstadion.
Goals from Mats Hummels, Robert Lewandowski and Marco Reus earned Juergen Klopp's side all three points to keep BVB in second place, but there is little chance of denying Bayern back-to-back title wins.
Schalke bounced back from Tuesday's Champions League exit at the hands of Real Madrid with a 3-1 win over Eintracht Braunschweig.
Leon Goretzka got the ball rolling after 17 minutes before Klaas Jan Huntelaar converted a superb free-kick on 66 minutes to make it 2-0.
Braunschweig pulled one back through Omar Elabdellaoui's deflected strike on 81 minutes but it was not enough to deny Schalke, who wrapped up the win with a stoppage-time third from Adam Szalai.
Alexandru Maxim came off the bench to hit the only goal as Stuttgart claimed a 1-0 win over 10-man Hamburg in their crunch relegation clash.
Hakan Calhanoglu was dismissed in the 53rd minute for his second bookable offence and Maxim's goal 16 minutes later handed Stuttgart their first win in 10 Bundesliga games and saw them leapfrog their opponents and move out of the drop zone.
European hopefuls Wolfsburg and Augsburg shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw at the Volkswagen Arena.
Tobias Werner put the visitors in front with three minutes remaining in the first half, but Ivica Olic equalised for Wolfsburg late in the match.
Augsburg's compact defensive unit disrupted any Wolfsburg flow to the game, which infuriated coach Dieter Hecking on the sidelines.
Borussia Moenchengladbach breezed past Hertha Berlin with a 3-0 win to move up to fifth place in the table in Saturday's late kick-off.
Goals from Juan Arango, Max Kruse and Raffael Araujo put the hosts three up inside 40 minutes at Borussia-Park, with Lucien Favre's side netting back-to-back victories for the first time in 2014.