Bayern extend lead, Wolfsburg drop points in German Bundesliga

Bayern Munich came from behind to beat Hannover 3-1 while Augsburg inflicted Wolfsburg the first loss in 2015 at the 24th round of the German Bundesliga on Saturday.

Front-runners Bayern Munich extended their lead atop the standings as they turned the tides against Hannover to earn the fifth straight victory thanks to Thomas Mueller's brace. Hannover wait for their first victory since eight games.

Resilient Hannover gave the hosts a hard fight, as the German record champions were unable to produce goal-scoring opportunities. The visitors shocked Bayern with the opener through Hiroshi Kiyotake, who made use of Jimmy Briand's build up play to slot home into the bottom left corner at the 25th minute.

However, it was a short-lived joy for Hannover as Bayern responded only three minutes later. Xabi Alonso utilized a dead ball to curl the ball over the wall into the top left corner to restore parity.

Despite the equalizer Bayern lacked in penetration but an awarded foul play penalty allowed the hosts to grab the lead for the first time when Thomas Mueller made it 2-1 on the scoreboards from the spot at the 61st minute.

The Bavarians were not done with the scoring as Mueller sealed his brace 11 minutes later to make the game safe.

With the 19th victory of the season Bayern Munich extend their lead to 11 points atop the standings whereas Hannover suffered their 11th loss to slip the 11th place.

Augsburg ended their winless run of four games by upsetting runner up Wolfsburg 1-0 on home soil. The "Wolves" suffered their first loss in 2015 to lose ground on front-runners Bayern Munich.

Hard running Augsburg kept Wolfsburg's dangerous offense on the distance for 90 minutes. The hosts snatched all three points by courtesy of Dominik Kohr, who tapped in the rebound of Tobias Werner's foul play penalty at the 63rd minute.

Wolfsburg pressed for the equalizer but neither Daniel Caligiuri nor in-form striker Bas Dost were able to level the scores in the closing period.

The "Wolves" recorded the fourth loss of the season to remain on the second place with 50 points while Augsburg climbed on the 5th place with 38 points.

Schalke returned to winning ways as they downed Hoffenheim 3-1 thanks to two goals by youngster Max Meyer.

The "Royal Blues" caught a perfect start on the road as Christian Fuchs slotted home a drop kick from 16 meters into the bottom left with 12 minutes into the game.

The visitors doubled the lead just before the break when Max Meyer capitalized on Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting's square pass to tap in the 2-0 lead at the 41st minute. Schalke's Meyer sewed up his brace after the restart to kill the game thanks to the second assist by Choupo-Moting at the 53rd minute.

Nevertheless, Kevin Volland scored the consolation for Hoffenheim at the 73rd minute to mark the final 3-1 score.

Schalke moved to the 4th place with 38 points whilst Hoffenheim stays on the 7th position with 33 points.

Elsewhere, Hamburg and Dortmund shared the spoils following a goalless draw after ninety minutes.

Relegation threatened Freiburg remains caught in the relegation battle as Bremen sealed a narrow 1-0 away victory by courtesy of Franco di Santo's winner at the 35th minute and third placed Monchengladbach gave away a two goal lead to share points with resilient Mainz after a two all draw.

The following fixtures are scheduled for Sunday: newly promoted Cologne host Frankfurt and newly promoted Paderborn encounter Bayer Leverkusen. Endi