Schalke ramps up pressure

Joel Matip gave the Royal Blues a perfect start with a goal in the third minute while the home team also had a goal from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar wrongly disallowed.

Kyriakos Papadopoulos then doubled the lead in the 57th minute with Julian Draxler adding the third 10 minutes from time.

Shinji Okazaki pulled a goal back in the 87th minute for Stuttgart but it was too little too late to worry the host as it made the most of Bayern's loss to Borussia Monchengladbach the previous night.

Sebastian Polter gave Wolfsburg a winning start to 2012 with a late goal earning Felix Magath's new-look side all three points against Cologne in a 1-0 win.

Five of Magath's northern winter signings played a part in the proceedings, but it was a home-grown talent who made the difference with the winning goal 12 minutes from the end.

Christian Streich celebrated a winning start to life as coach of Freiburg as his side moved off the foot of the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win over fellow struggler Augsburg.

With all eyes on Freiburg's new attack after the sale of Papiss Demba Cisse to Newcastle United, it was a previously unknown defender, 18-year-old Matthias Ginter, who scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.

Nurnberg celebrated its 1,000th game in the Bundesliga with a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin which increased the likelihood of it extending its stay in the top flight of German football by another season.

Alexander Esswein and Dominic Maroh scored the goals for Dieter Hecking's side against Hertha, whose new coach Michael Skibbe made a losing return to the Bundesliga.

UEFA Europa League hopefuls Hoffenheim and Hannover took a Bundesliga point each from a dull goalless draw at the Rhein-Neckar Arena.

Werder Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese was on top form to earn his side a point in a keenly-contested 0-0 draw with Kaiserslautern at the Betzenberg.

Both sides hit the woodwork in an entertaining encounter in front of a sell-out crowd in Rhineland-Palatinate.