Although events in Dortmund no doubt overshadowed it, Bayern Munich saw their lead at the top of the Bundesliga cut as bogey-team Borussia Mönchengladbach inflicted a first defeat since Jupp Heynckes returned to the club.

RB Leipzig beat Werder Bremen to close the gap on the leaders, whilst there were also victories on Saturday for Bayer Leverkusen, FC Augsburg and SC Freiburg.

Heynckes beaten at last

Bayern had won all nine matches since the return of Heynckes in October, including the DFB-Pokal penalty shootout victory over Leipzig. But without the likes of Thiago and Arjen Robben, injured in the victory over RSC Anderlecht in midweek, they finally came unstuck at, as is often the case, Borussia-Park.

After Niklas Süle was penalised for handball, Thorgan Hazard opened the scoring from the spot just over seven minutes before half-time, despite Sven Ulreich getting a hand to it. Robert Lewandowski then hit the post before Matthias Ginter made it two in the penultimate minute of the first half.

As Gladbach fought hard to keep hold of what they add, Arturo Vidal pulled one back for the champions. Few would have betted against an equaliser, but it never came and Bayern fell to a second league defeat of the season and a third loss in just over six years in Mönchengladbach. Gladbach are fourth in the table.

Unlike Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, Leipzig took advantage with a 2-0 win against Bremen to close the gap on Bayern to three points. Naby Keïta and Bernardo scored to prevent Bremen building on any momentum gained in their win against Hannover 96 last weekend.

Leverkusen up to sixth as Freiburg escape relegation zone

Leverkusen are just a point behind stuttering Dortmund, in sixth place, after a narrow 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. Kevin Volland scored the only goal in the final 15 minutes for der Werkself, with Frankfurt unlucky not to get anything from the game.

After Martin Schmidt tasted victory for the first time as VfL Wolfsburg coach last week, he suffered his first defeat as Augsburg came from behind. The Wolves had Maximillian Arnold sent off early on but then led through Daniel Divadi. Michael Gregoritsch equalised just after the break though, with the winner coming from Alfred Finnbogason late on.

Finally, Freiburg earned a much-needed victory against 1. FSV Mainz 05, just their second of the season, to lift them themselves out of the bottom three. Nils Petersen scored his second league goal of the season in the 51st minute, and Florian Kath thought he’d made it safe in stoppage time, although Emil Berggreen got one back for Mainz before the end.