Bayern Munich opened up a three-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday, although they left it late to maintain their 100 per cent record in Hamburg.
Joshua Kimmich scored the only goal of the game in the 88th minute as Carlo Ancelotti breathed a sigh of relief with his eighth win in eight competitive fixtures.
Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia failed to lift the pressure which has been mounting on him lately, with his side losing their fourth game in a row, but the performance of his side was nevertheless encouraging at the Volksparkstadion.
Encouragement is what Borussia Monchengladbach would have got - and needed - from their 2-0 win over Ingolstadt.
Lars Stindl and Oscar Wendt scored the goals which took the Foals up to fourth in a week when they welcome Barcelona to the Borussia Park Stadion in the Champions League.
Ingolstadt, meanwhile, slipped below Hamburg and into the relegation zone after falling to their fourth defeat of the season.
There were plenty of goals in Frankfurt, where Eintracht and Hertha Berlin took a point apiece from a 3-3 draw.
Vedad Ibisevic was on target twice for the guests, who led early on and then trailed at half-time before leading again through Alexander Esswein's goal.
Marco Fabian, Alexander Meier and, at the death, Michael Hector scored for the Eagles.
There was only one goal fewer at the Mainz Arena in an equally dramatic encounter which included a hat-trick for former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Javier Hernandez.
His third sealed a 3-2 win for Bayer Leverkusen over Mainz after Yunus Malli and Stefan Bell scored for the hosts.
Augsburg won only their second game of the season with their coach Dirk Schuster getting one over his former club Darmstadt, thanks to an Alfred Finnbogason goal, while Werder Bremen got their season up and running with goals from Lennart Thy and Theodor Gebre Selassie earning them a 2-1 win over Wolfsburg, who had led through a Robert Bauer own-goal.
Source: PA-WIRE
