Werder Bremen beat lowly Alemannia Aachen 3-1 on Friday evening to move into pole position, but, after a goalless first half, an own goal from Timo Rost and a further strike from Marcelo Bordon gave the points and the advantage in the title race to Mirko Slomka's side.

Stuttgart are still in the hunt for a league and cup double after a 2-0 win over defending champions Bayern Munich.

Goals either side of half-time from Cacau earned Armin Veh's side the win, which leaves them five points off the top.

With four games to go and a gap to the leaders of nine points, the defeat has all but ended the Bavarians' title defence.

At the other end of the table, Arminia Bielefeld clambered out of the drop zone on goal difference with a vital 3-2 win at fellow strugglers Wolfsburg.

Heiko Westermann's opener for the visitors was cancelled out by Marcelinho before Isaac Boakye put the home side ahead.

But strikes from Christian Eigler and subsititute Artur Wichniarek late on won the points for Arminia.

Borussia Dortmund put two points between themselves and the bottom three with a 1-0 win at Hertha Berlin thanks to a second-half goal from Markus Brzenska.

Bochum took a sizeable step towards securing their Bundesliga future with a 3-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Theofanis Gekas opened the scoring in the first half, before two from Joel Epalle sealed the points.

Lying four points off the drop zone, Frankfurt will not consider themselves safe.

In Saturday's other game, a Bernd Schneider brace ensured Bayern Leverkusen won 2-0 against Nurnberg, to leapfrog their opponents into the second UEFA Cup spot.