Bayern Munich remained three points clear at the top of the German league on Sunday after second-placed Werder Bremen slumped to a 3-2 defeat at Hanover and had goal-scorer Marko Arnautovic sent off.
Hanover's Norway striker Mohammed Abdellaoue netted a hat-trick in an entertaining game as both sides threw everything into attack, while leaving plenty of room at the back to exploit.
Bremen were reduced to 10 men with 12 minutes left when ex-Inter Milan striker Arnautovic was shown a straight red for kicking Hanover midfielder Sergio Pinto in the foot.
Abdellaoue, 25, scored his first goal after just two minutes when he drilled home a penalty and then doubled Hanover's lead when he converted a perfect cross from ex-Germany striker Jan Schlaudraff on 38 minutes.
Arnautovic made it 2-1 on the stroke of half-time when he beat Hanover goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler three minutes into added time.
Both sides began the second half by seeing efforts come off the woodwork, Bremen's Claudio Pizarro hitting the post, as did Schlaudraff for Hanover, all in the opening five minutes.
Abdellaoue made sure of the win, which lifted his side to fourth, slamming home a shot on 60 minutes when the Bremen defence were caught napping and the offside flag - quite rightly - stayed down.
Pizarro was finally rewarded for a tireless display when a pass from midfielder Clemens Fritz put him behind the Hanover defence and he netted with eight minutes left to make it 3-2 to the hosts.
Bayern were held to a goalless draw at Hoffenheim on Saturday with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer now having gone over 1,000 minutes without conceding a goal as the Bavarians had their 10-match winning streak ended.
Bayern's last defeat in any competition was back on August 7.
Germany star Neuer, who joined from Schalke 04 last summer, has now gone 1,018 minutes without conceding a goal in all competitions.
Belgian goalkeeper Dany Verlinden holds the European clean sheet record of 1,390 minutes for Brugge, a mark which Manchester United's Edwin van der Sar came close to breaking when he went 1,311 minutes without conceding a goal in the 2008-09 season.
Moenchengladbach, the only team to beat Bayern this season, suffered their first defeat in four games when they went down 1-0 at Freiburg but stay third.
Ex-Germany captain Michael Ballack captained Leverkusen to a 3-1 win at home to Wolfsburg, having scored in his team's Champions League win over Belgium champions Genk on Wednesday, and played the full 90 minutes.
Dortmund bounced back from their heavy Champions League defeat at Marseille to enjoy an impressive 4-0 win at home to Augsburg as Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, who scored a hat-trick, and Germany midfielder Mario Goetze ran riot.
The three points has done wonders for Dortmund's league position and lifted them up to fifth.
Mainz came back from 2-0 down to seal a 3-3 draw at Nuremberg while Hertha Berlin picked up their third win from eight games with a 3-0 win over Cologne as teenage striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga scored twice.
Source: AFP
