Hertha hold onto fourth in snowy Berlin

Hertha Berlin held onto fourth spot in the Bundesliga on Sunday as an own-goal during a freak blizzard in Germany's capital sealed a 1-0 home win over bottom side Hoffenheim.

There was a minute's silence out of respect for the victims of the Paris terror attacks and snow began to fall just after kick-off at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, meaning the referee soon had to call for an orange ball.

Hertha profited most from the winter weather when Hoffenheim defender Eugen Polanski got a slight touch on the ball, which he headed into his own net on 30 minutes when trying to clear a free-kick.

Ingolstadt claimed their first win in five games with a 3-1 comeback victory at home to Darmstadt, in the battle of last season's second division sides, to climb to eighth in the table as their striker Moritz Hartmann netted twice.

On Saturday, Javi Martinez scored his first goal since August 2013 for Bayern Munich as their 3-1 win at Schalke 04 opened an eight-point lead in the table.
After second-placed Borussia Dortmund's shock 3-1 defeat at Hamburg on Friday, Pep Guardiola's Bayern took their chance to extend their lead.

David Alaba's early goal was cancelled out by Schalke's Max Meyer before Martinez, then Thomas Mueller struck for Bayern while the Royal Blues are seventh in the table and winless in their last seven games.

Germany striker Max Kruse netted twice in Wolfsburg's 6-0 rout of Werder Bremen, who gifted the opener when defender Alejandro Galvez slid the ball into his own net on 11 minutes.

Kruse put third-placed Wolfsburg 2-0 up at the break by heading home a free-kick then Portugal international Vierinha netted on 56 minutes.

The floodgates opened when France midfielder Josuha Guilavogui, on for the injured Brazil star Luiz Gustavo, stabbed home his shot, Kruse then set up Netherlands striker Bas Dost on 78 minutes.

He completed the scoring three minutes from time by converting a cross and the result leaves Wolfsburg five points behind Dortmund.

- Gladbach extend run -
Borussia Moenchengladbach are fifth as Andre Schubert celebrated his first match in charge as head coach with a 2-1 win at home to Hanover 96 thanks to goals by forwards Ibrahima Traore and Raffael.

Having taken over in September with Borussia bottom of the table, the 42-year-old has been promoted from a caretaker role after steering Gladbach to seven wins and a draw in his eight league games.

Ex-Manchester United star Javier Hernandez scored his first brace for Bayer Leverkusen in their 3-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Christmas came early for Hernandez in Frankfurt when Eintracht centre-back David Abraham allowed a cross to roll between his legs and the striker stabbed home on 11 minutes.

The Mexico striker doubled his tally on 39 minutes, but it finished 2-1 at the break when Serbian midfielder Slobodan Medojevic headed home on the stroke of half-time before Hakan Calhanoglu scored Leverkusen's third goal on 72 minutes.
Augsburg climbed off the bottom of the table with an emphatic 4-0 win at VfB Stuttgart as woeful defending by the hosts allowed the visitors to take an early 2-0 lead with both goals by midfielder Alexander Esswein.

Defender Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker grabbed a third before former South Korea captain Koo Ja-Cheol scored Augsburg's fourth when he hit the top right-hand corner from 10 metres out on 54 minutes.

The Rhine derby finished goalless as Mainz drew at Cologne as the hosts abandoned plans to play in a special-edition carnival-themed shirt out of respect for those who died in Paris.

Source: AFP