"Village club" Hoffenheim saw an easy 3-0 win against Bielefeld on Saturday to defend their leadership in the Bundesliga standings, while defending champions Bayern Munich overcame major rival Leverkusen 2-0 to stay in the race for top position.

It was Hoffenheim's eighth win in nine games while struggling Bielefeld wait for an away win since August 11, 2007.

Hoffenheim were without regulars Sejad Salihovic, Luiz Gustavo, both suspended and Chinedu Obasi with knee injury, but it took them just five minutes to open the scoring.

Goalgetter Vedad Ibisevic notched up his seventeenth goal of the season from Selim Teber's cross.

Carlos Eduardo doubled Hoffenheim's lead with a shot from 18 meters just six minutes later.

Bielefeld tried to find a way back, but Artur Wichniarek and Thorben Marx missed opportunities to halve the deficit.

Francisco Copado put the icing on the cake for the hosts with a penalty one minute from time.

In a major clash on Saturday, defending champions Bayern Munich beat main rival Leverkusen 2-0, sealing the second place to stay in the race for the Bundesliga leaders before the winter break.

Italian forward Luca Toni and German national striker Miroslav Klose bagged a goal apiece in the 2-0 win as the defending champions extended their unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions.

The result moves them up to second on 31 points, three behind leaders Hoffenheim, who will visit the Allianz Arena next week. Leverkusen drop to fourth, still on 28 points.

It was a disappointing performance overall from Leverkusen, who had made the better start of the two sides.

Midway through the first half Bayern slowly began to assert control over the proceedings. Bastian Schweinsteiger pulled two good saves out of Bayer keeper Rene Adler and drilled another effort narrowly wide on the half-hour mark.

There was more of the same in the second half as Bayern continued to press for the opener, with that man Schweinsteiger seeing a header come off the bar just four minutes in.

Bayern finally broke the deadlock a minute shy of the hour mark, Toni rising to head home a cross from Ze Roberto. Franck Ribery almost made it two soon after, only to be foiled by Adler.

In the 82nd minute, Ribery returned to the role of provider, setting up Klose for his sixth goal of the season.

That sealed Bayern's eighth successive victory over Leverkusen and left the champions with the number one spot in the table firmly in their sights.

German football powerhouse Werder Bremen bounced back from the disappointment of their early exit from the Champions League to hit hapless Frankfurt for five at home.

The 5-0 win made it three-in-a-row at home for the Hanseatics, a result which moves them up to seventh for the time being. Frankfurt meanwhile came back down to earth with a bump after last week's 4-0 demolition of Hannover and remain hovering just a few points above the drop zone.

Also on Saturday, strikers Mike Hanke and Mikael Forssell both scored in Hannover 96's 3-2 home win over new bottom-of-the-table club Karlsruher, while newly-elevated Moenchengladbach lost to Cottbus 3-1.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2008)