Dortmund scored on the stroke of halftime with Japan international Shinji Kagawa shaking off two defenders with afine solo run and slotting in with a clever left-footed shot from a tight angle.

The result lifted Dortmund to 46 points, two ahead of Bayern, with Leverkusen stuck in sixth place on 31 and looking lacklustre ahead of their Champions League round of 16 first leg against Barcelona next week.

Top scorer Mario Gomez headed Bayern into a sixth-minute lead with his 18th league goal and Thomas Mueller added a second, with another powerful header on the half hour mark.

VfB Stuttgart crushed 10-man Hertha Berlin 5-0 with four goals in 41 minutes to put Hertha coach Michael Skibbe’s job in doubt after his fifth defeat in five games since taking over. The team are in 15th place, two above the relegation zone.

Coach Markus Babbel, sacked by Hertha in December, thought he would celebrate a winning debut on the Hoffenheim bench until Werder Bremen’s Marko Arnautovic snatched a 90th-minute goal for a 1-1 draw.

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