Runaway leaders Borussia Dortmund maintained their lead at the top of the Bundesliga standings with a 2-0 victory at home against St Pauli on Saturday.
Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Mainz in the later match, moved into second place above Bayer Leverkusen, whose match against VfB Stuttgart is on Sunday.
German internationals Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez scored the goals for the defending champions, who remained 13 points behind Dortmund.
After initially allowing the home side to dominate the early proceedings, Bayern soon grabbed the momentum and it came as no surprise when Schweinsteiger gave them the lead in the ninth minute, heading a headed cross from Arjen Robben into goal.
Striker Andre Schuerrle then had two excellent opportunities to level matters for the home side, first lobbing the ball over goalkeeper Thomas Kraft, only to see it fly agonizingly close past the upright.
Shortly afterwards Schuerrle's brilliant turn in the Bayern area gave him a free shot, which forced Kraft to pull off a fantastic save.
Kraft injured himself shortly afterwards and was replaced at half- time by Joerg Butt.
In the second half Bayern again got off to the better start as Mueller extended their lead from a Robben cross. Bayern then managed to hold onto the lead without too much effort, allowing Mainz just one chance before Gomez added a third in the 74th minute after being set up by Mueller.
Mainz got a deserved goal six minutes from the end when Sami Allagui headed home a Christian Fuchs cross.
Thomas Mueller said that his side had not played perfectly. "We gave away too many balls and that put us under some pressure, but I think we won deservedly.
"We are now we are looking forward to the Champions League match against Inter Milan and I think we have a chance to go through against them."
His namesake Mainz goalkeeper Heinz Mueller said that it was their mistakes that gave away the goals. "It makes no sense to try to gloss over the defeat. Bayern played well and we made the mistakes."
Earlier a goal from Lucas Barrios and an own goal from Ralph Gunesch saw Dortmund comfortably beat St Pauli, who would have conceded many more had goalkeeper Thomas Kessler not been in terrific form.
Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer said that he thought his side had deserved their first victory at home this year. "We showed that we are not in a crisis.
"What makes us so strong is that all the players fight for each other and that is why it is so difficult to beat us."
Like the rest of the team Schmelzer refused to talk about winning the championship. "We have said from the beginning, we take one match at a time and then at the end of the season we will see what happens."
St Pauli players admitted that they had no chance against a strong Dortmund side. "We deserved to lose. They were much stronger than we were and we stood no chance," said Matthias Lehmann, while Kessler, who kept the score to just two, added: "We just simply failed to perform."
In other matches Hanover beat struggling Kaiserslautern 3-0, while SV Hamburg pushed northern Germany rivals Werder Bremen deeper into trouble with a 4-0 victory.
Also in trouble remain VfL Wolfsburg, who surrendered a 1-0 lead at SC Freiburg and lost 2-1. The game between Hoffenheim and Cologne ended 1-1.
On Friday Nuremberg beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0.
Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Mainz in the later match, moved into second place above Bayer Leverkusen, whose match against VfB Stuttgart is on Sunday.
German internationals Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez scored the goals for the defending champions, who remained 13 points behind Dortmund.
After initially allowing the home side to dominate the early proceedings, Bayern soon grabbed the momentum and it came as no surprise when Schweinsteiger gave them the lead in the ninth minute, heading a headed cross from Arjen Robben into goal.
Striker Andre Schuerrle then had two excellent opportunities to level matters for the home side, first lobbing the ball over goalkeeper Thomas Kraft, only to see it fly agonizingly close past the upright.
Shortly afterwards Schuerrle's brilliant turn in the Bayern area gave him a free shot, which forced Kraft to pull off a fantastic save.
Kraft injured himself shortly afterwards and was replaced at half- time by Joerg Butt.
In the second half Bayern again got off to the better start as Mueller extended their lead from a Robben cross. Bayern then managed to hold onto the lead without too much effort, allowing Mainz just one chance before Gomez added a third in the 74th minute after being set up by Mueller.
Mainz got a deserved goal six minutes from the end when Sami Allagui headed home a Christian Fuchs cross.
Thomas Mueller said that his side had not played perfectly. "We gave away too many balls and that put us under some pressure, but I think we won deservedly.
"We are now we are looking forward to the Champions League match against Inter Milan and I think we have a chance to go through against them."
His namesake Mainz goalkeeper Heinz Mueller said that it was their mistakes that gave away the goals. "It makes no sense to try to gloss over the defeat. Bayern played well and we made the mistakes."
Earlier a goal from Lucas Barrios and an own goal from Ralph Gunesch saw Dortmund comfortably beat St Pauli, who would have conceded many more had goalkeeper Thomas Kessler not been in terrific form.
Dortmund defender Marcel Schmelzer said that he thought his side had deserved their first victory at home this year. "We showed that we are not in a crisis.
"What makes us so strong is that all the players fight for each other and that is why it is so difficult to beat us."
Like the rest of the team Schmelzer refused to talk about winning the championship. "We have said from the beginning, we take one match at a time and then at the end of the season we will see what happens."
St Pauli players admitted that they had no chance against a strong Dortmund side. "We deserved to lose. They were much stronger than we were and we stood no chance," said Matthias Lehmann, while Kessler, who kept the score to just two, added: "We just simply failed to perform."
In other matches Hanover beat struggling Kaiserslautern 3-0, while SV Hamburg pushed northern Germany rivals Werder Bremen deeper into trouble with a 4-0 victory.
Also in trouble remain VfL Wolfsburg, who surrendered a 1-0 lead at SC Freiburg and lost 2-1. The game between Hoffenheim and Cologne ended 1-1.
On Friday Nuremberg beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0.
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