Michael Ballack’s two goals were enough to secure Bayern Munich a win at Nuremberg, and keep them on top of the Bundesliga.

Ballack headed Bayern into an early lead, only to see his effort cancelled out by Sasa Ciric’s penalty. However, he scored what turned out to be the winner on 52 minutes, when he linked up with Brazilian striker Elber to fire home. Joy turned to misery, however, as Ballack bruised his foot during the match, and could miss Bayen’s Champions League clash with Deportivo on Wednesday.

Borussia Dortmund dropped further behind the leaders, with a 1-1 draw against Schalke in the Ruhr Valley derby. Victor Agali put Schalke ahead on 70 minutes, but Brazilian Ewerthon scored an immediate reply, to earn a share of the points.

Leverkusen have not got off to the best of starts this season, and their shaky form continued when they suffered a surprise defeat to last season’s second division champions Hanover 96. Turkey midfielder Yildiray Basturk gave last season’s runners-up the lead early in the first half, but a double from Fredi Bobic and a late strike from Mohammadou Idrissou gave Hannover their first points of the season.

Kaiserslautern’s abysmal start to the season continued with defeat to Hamburg. Two goals from Bernardo Romeo were enough for the win, leaving Kaiserslautern bottom of the table, with just two points from their first five games.

VfL Bochum’s recent impressive run was ended by fellow high-flyers Hansa Rostock. Rostock won the game 1-0, thanks to Togo striker Bachirou Salou grabbing the winner mid-way through the first half. Rostock move above Bochum into second place, just a point behind leaders Bayern.

1860 Munich threw away a two-goal lead against VfL Wolfsburg in an entertaining draw. Michael Weisinger and Markus Schroth put Munich into a commanding second half lead. However, Robson Ponte pulled one back 13 minutes from time to ensure a frantic finish, which culminated in Diego Klimowicz equalising with just 3 minutes remaining.

Elsewhere, Tomislav Piplica’s own goal sunk Energie Cottbus at home to Werder Bremen, whilst Borussia M’gladbach shared a 1-1 draw with VfB Stuttgart. Markus Munch broke the deadlock for Borussia, only for Kevin Kuranyi to reply for Stuttgart.

Hertha Berlin picked up an away win at Arminia Bielefeld, with Marcelo Marcelino scoring the only goal of the game.