Borussia Dortmund show no signs of letting up at the top as Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich are doing their best to stay in the Bundesliga title race after encouraging victories on Saturday.
Cologne also ground out an important three points, while Kaiserslautern and Hoffenheim were both held at home.
Leaders Borussia Dortmund recorded a seventh successive win in the Bundesliga after a 2-0 home triumph over Werder Bremen. Nuri Sahin scored first goal and Shinji Kagawa (L; 19.50 points FTBL Rating for the match) the second.
Nuri Sahin opened the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes before Shinji Kagawa made the game safe 20 minutes from time.
Bayern Munich are determined to head into the winter break on a positive note and enjoyed a 3-0 home win over 10-man St Pauli.
Hamit Altintop put the reigning champions in front on 16 minutes before Bayern were given a helping hand with 20 minutes to go.
St Pauli keeper Thomas Kessler was sent off for bringing down Thomas Muller in the box and Philipp Lahm converted the penalty before Franck Ribery added a third on 79 minutes.
Bayer Leverkusen are trying to keep up the chase of leaders Borussia Dortmund and secured an excellent 4-2 win away to Hamburg.
Sidney Sam gave Leverkusen the lead on the half-hour mark before Hamburg were level two minutes into the second half thanks to Arturo Vidal's own goal.
Vidal atoned for that mistake by restoring Leverkusen's advantage on the hour and Renato Augusto added another on 66 minutes.
Augusto scored his second of the game on 78 minutes before Hamburg replied with a consolation from substitute Eljero Elia just 60 seconds later.
Substitute Christian Eigler came to Nurnberg's rescue as he scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw away to Hoffenheim.
The hosts led through Marvin Compper's 55th minute goal, but Eigler popped up with three minutes to go to snare a point for Nurnberg.
Cologne picked up a much-needed victory as Christian Clemens' 56th minute goal secured a 1-0 victory at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Kaiserslautern and Wolfsburg are three points outside the bottom three after playing out a 0-0 draw.
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