Borussia Moenchengladbach stayed within four points of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on Sunday with a 3-1 win against Hoffenheim that saw them equal the club record for their longest unbeaten start to a season.
Gladbach have not lost any of their opening 17 matches this season to match the club's record-breaking start to the 1970/71 campaign.
Left winger Patrick Herrmann was the star at the Borussia Park as he set up the first goal for opposite winger Andre Hahn, then netted twice either side of half-time.
After Hahn had put the hosts ahead, Hoffenheim's French striker Anthony Modeste equalised with 30 minutes gone when he powered past Gladbach defender Martin Stranzl to fire home.
But Herrmann converted a Hahn cross just two minutes later, then tapped in the rebound after Havard Nordtveit's free-kick was parried with 52 minutes gone.
Gladbach coach Lucien Favre celebrated his 57th birthday with the win which equalled a record set more than 40 years ago at the start of the club's heyday.
Hoffenheim are fourth after their first defeat of the campaign.
Borussia finish the weekend third in the table on 20 points, behind VfL Wolfsburg on goal difference, and Favre admitted his frustration at not winning by a wider margin.
"We fought until the end for that fourth goal, we're not scoring enough goals from our chances," said Favre, for whom the crowd sang 'Happy Birthday' just before the final whistle.
"We must work on that."
But the Swiss appeared a little shy when asked if he was responsible for equalling the club's record.
"I do some good work, but I can't achieve anything alone, we're only good when we work together," he said.
Mid-table Paderborn later enjoyed a 3-1 win over Hertha Berlin while Freiburg earned their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory at Cologne, thanks to Vladimir Darida's second-half penalty, which lifted his team off the bottom.
Freiburg's win pushed Borussia Dortmund further down the table into 17th, in the automatic relegation places, as they endure the worst start to a season in the club's history.
On Saturday, Bayern compounded Dortmund's misery with a 2-1 victory as last season's runners-up suffered their fifth consecutive defeat.
With seven points from their first 10 Bundesliga games, Dortmund are now the only team in Germany's top flight to have lost seven games this season.
Marco Reus, who is reported to be a Bayern target, gave Dortmund a first-half lead only for Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski to score against his old club before Arjen Robben converted an 85th-minute penalty.
Robben returned to haunt Dortmund after scoring the winner in the 2013 Champions League final and also netting in Bayern's 2-0 extra-time win over Dortmund in May's German Cup final in Berlin.
Wolfsburg went second with a 4-0 hammering of VfB Stuttgart on Saturday as ex-Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne netted his first goal of the season and created another two.
Wolves picked up their sixth straight win in all competitions.
At the foot of the table, both north German neighbours Werder Bremen and Hamburg picked up wins which initially saw Dortmund drop into the bottom three.
A Rafael van der Vaart penalty sealed Hamburg's 1-0 win at home to Bayer Leverkusen in a bad-tempered affair which saw nine yellow cards -- six were handed out in the first half alone -- after two separate scuffles broke out.
Werder Bremen are now bottom even though their caretaker coach Viktor Skripnik steered them to their first victory of the season as ex-Chelsea and Wigan Athletic striker Franco di Santo netted both goals in a 2-1 victory over Mainz.
Hanover 96 went sixth with a 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
On Friday, Roberto di Matteo picked up his third win in four matches as Schalke 04 coach when Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored in a 1-0 victory at home to Augsburg to lift the Royal Blues up to eighth.
Source: AFP