Per Mertesacker saved Werder Bremen's lengthy unbeaten record with a last-gasp equaliser to deny Wolfsburg all three points as a dramatic northern Germany derby at the Weser Stadion ended 2-2.

Edin Dzeko gave the defending German champions the lead in the 42nd minute, but Hugo Almeida replied in the 62nd minute.

Dzeko's second five minutes from time looked to have earned the Wolves all three points, but Mertesacker pounced to make it 21 games without a defeat for Bremen and lift them back to the top of the Bundesliga.

Marco Reus' early goal was enough as Borussia Monchengladbach continued their good run with a 1-0 home victory over Schalke.

Reus scored in the fifth minute and Gladbach held onto their slim advantage as keeper Logan Bailly produced an excellent display.

That saw their undefeated sequence extend into a fifth game - for the first time since 2005 - and the victory took them to 18 points - six clear of the relegation zone.

Nuri Sahin's late penalty kept Borussia Dortmund undefeated in seven games with a hard-earned 2-1 victory at 10-man Hoffenheim.

Jakub Blaszczykowski gave Dortmund the lead after two minutes but Demba Ba equalised in the 49th minute for the home side.

But Sahin converted from the spot in the 79th minute and Hoffenheim finished the game with 10 men as Maicosuel was shown a red card in the 81st minute.

Hertha Berlin's desperate start to the season continued as a 3-1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt stretched their winless run in the Bundesliga to 13 games.

Patrick Ochs gave Eintracht the lead after 11 minutes and Maik Franz made it 2-0 with 20 minutes remaining.

Alexander Meier settled the contest with a third five minutes later before Adrian Ramos grabbed a consolation for the hosts with nine minutes left.

The defeat kept Hertha - whose boss Friedhelm Funkel was facing the side he used to coach - rooted to the foot of the table with just five points from 14 games.

Tim Hoogland's late goal kept promoted Mainz undefeated at home this season with a 1-1 draw against Hamburg, who suffered yet another serious injury.

Tunay Torun gave Hamburg the lead after just three minutes but Hoogland equalised in the 86th minute for the hosts.

Hamburg had Eljero Elia stretchered off - joining the 10 players already missing, including the likes of Paolo Guerrero, Mladen Petric and Ze Roberto.

Stefan Reisinger's early goal was enough for Freiburg to grab an important victory at Nurnberg in the fight against relegation.

Reisinger scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute as Freiburg bounced back from a 6-0 thrashing last week at home to Werder Bremen.

Robin Dutt's side have won their last two away games to climb to 12th place, four points clear of a relegation spot.

Cologne bounced back from their thrashing by Hoffenheim last weekend to earn a 0-0 draw at fellow strugglers Bochum on Friday night, but the result will do little to ease the pressure on coach Zvonimir Soldo.

Soldo held a crisis meeting with his players earlier this week and on Thursday stripped Milivoje Novakovic of the captaincy, revealing he was unhappy with the player's attitude.

His team responded with a display which was much improved from their 4-0 home defeat last Saturday, but again their attacking failings were all to evident.