Karim Haggui's early goal was cancelled out by Nurnberg's Zvjezdan Misimovic in the 12th minute.

But Nurnberg defender Leandro Glauber put through his own net 11 minutes after the interval before Theofanis Gekas and Stefan Kiessling rounded off the scoring.

Leverkusen have lost just once in their last seven league games and move above Werder Bremen into third place, six points behind Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich.

Bremen lost 1-0 at home to Wolfsburg, Grafite scoring the winner five minutes into the second half.

On Saturday, Energie Cottbus stunned Bayern with a 2-0 win to lift themselves off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone.

The damage was done with a double from Branko Jelic, who struck after 18 minutes and again 20 minutes later to establish a cushion Cottbus did not relinquish.

Bayern did not help themselves though - Franck Ribery's penalty after 29 minutes, which could have turned the game in his side's favour, was saved by Gerhard Tremmel.

Hamburg beat Borussia Dortmund 1-0 to move within five points of the summit.

Paolo Guerrero scored the only goal of the game for Hamburg, as they recovered from their UEFA Cup exit at the hands of Leverkusen in midweek.

Stuttgart's push for European football stuttered as they were held 1-1 at Bochum.

The hosts claimed the lead through Christoph Dabrowski's 20th-minute effort, but were pegged back by Thomas Hitzlsperger two minutes after the break.

Eintracht Frankfurt leapfrogged Karlsruhe with a 1-0 win.

Michael Fink scored the game's only goal in the 25th minute.

Arminia Bielefeld slipped into the relegation zone as they were denied a much-needed victory with hosts Hannover twice battling back to claim a 2-2 draw at the AWD Arena.

Andre Mijatovic put the visitors in the ascendancy after a quarter of an hour but the lead lasted barely 60 seconds before Arnold Bruggink restored parity.

Christian Eigler struck again in the 37th minute to earn Arminia a half-time advantage, only for substitute Jiri Stajner to level 11 minutes into the second period.

In Saturday's other game, Hansa Rostock and Hertha Berlin played out a 0-0 draw.

Schalke came from behind to claim a 2-1 win over lowly Duisburg - now bottom of the table - at the Arena AufSchalke on Friday.