Jadon Sancho's performance helped Borussia Dortmund to inflict the second loss in a row on Bayer Leverkusen following a 4-0 result, whereas Hoffenheim crushed ten-man Leipzig 5-2 in the 31st round of the Bundesliga football championship.
Peter Stoeger's men started highly motivated. It took just 13 minutes before they opened the scoring through Sancho, who marked his first Bundesliga season with a low shot into the far post corner.
Dortmund controlled the proceedings on the pitch while Leverkusen were unable to come out of their territory.
Even though the hosts were in full control, they had to wait after the restart to double the lead as Mario Goetze teed up for Marco Reus, who made it 2-0 on the scoreboard in the 55th minute.
Dortmund showed no mercy and pressed forward to triple their advantage against a hapless Leverkusen eight minutes later when Sancho's build-up allowed Maximilian Philipp to slot home from eleven metres.
The hosts retracted with their three-goal lead but they still were able to add another goal to their lead as Sancho chipped the ball to Reus, whose header overcame Leverkusen goalkeeper Ramazan Oezcan in the 79th minute.
With the result, Dortmund climbed to the 3rd place while Bayer Leverkusen slipped to the 4th position.
Leipzig suffered a setback in the hunt for a berth in Europe, as Hoffenheim thrashed them 5-2 to trade places in the standings.
Julian Nagelsmann-coached Hoffeinheim secured a flying start as Mark Uth poked home a fumbled ball from Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi in the 14th minute.
The visitors doubled the score through Serge Gnabry, who tapped home Uth's through ball in the 35th minute.
To make things worse for Leipzig, Uth set up another goal as Pavel Kaderabek snatched his first Bundesliga goal before the break.
Leipzig's hopes of a comeback were destroyed just two minutes into the second half as Emil Forsberg saw a straight red card for violent conduct.
Despite a numerical disadvantage, the hosts were able to reduce the arrears out of the blue after Naby Keita scored with a well-placed curl in the 58th minute.
However, Hoffenheim restored their three-goal lead as Uth nodded home Andrej Kramaric's cross moments later. The visitors were still not done with the scoring though as Nadiem Amiri's cross found Lukas Rupp, who tapped home right footed in the 64th minute.
Leipzig reduced the arrears to three goals in the closing period after Dayot Upamecano made the most of Ademola Lookman's assist.
With the victory, Hoffenheim move to the 4th place while Leipzig slumped to the 5th position.
Elsewhere, newly crowned champions Bayern Munich continued their relentless run after cruising 3-0 past Hannover.
Hertha Berlin reaped their second win in a row after upsetting ten-man Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 with three second-half goals.
Stuttgart edged Werder Bremen 2-0 while relegation threatened Hamburg maintained their chances to remain in Germany's top flight after overcoming Freiburg on the sole goal from Lewis Holtby.
--IANS
pur/bg
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)