Borussia Dortmund beat top-of-the-table Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0 to jump to fourth in the Bundesliga, level with Bayern Munich who earlier dropped points in a 2-2 draw at Augsburg.
The top of the Bundesliga grew even more congested with the top nine separated by just two points. Of the eight who have played so far this weekend, only Eintracht Frankfurt and Dortmund have won.
Gladbach remained top, ahead of Wolfsburg, who drew 1-1 at RB Leipzig, on goal difference. Both have 16 points from eight games.
Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig are all one point behind.
Then come four teams on 14 points, including Freiburg, who could have gone top but lost 2-0 at Union Berlin, and Bayer Leverkusen, who could also have taken over first, but lost at Frankfurt on Friday.
Schalke have a chance to seize top spot when they visit Hoffenheim on Sunday.
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In Dortmund, Thorgan Hazard's first-half strike for the home team against his former club was ruled out by VAR for a tight offside call.
Hazard then found a sprinting Marco Reus with a perfect through ball in the 58th minute. Reus slotted home for the only goal of the game.
Even though another Dortmund strike was erased by VAR in the 85th minute, the home team finished the game hanging on, adopting a back-five and even a back-six in added time to end a run of three successive draws.
"We are very, very happy that our efforts were rewarded with victory today. You could see that the game could have turned in the other direction," said Reus.
Coach Lucien Favre didn't hide his annoyance with the two tight VAR decisions that went against his side.
"That the two goals were not given is not good for football," lamented the Swiss coach.
Dortmund started without 19-year-old attacker Jadon Sancho who was dropped for "disciplinary reasons".
"Jadon is a great kid, but he is still very young," Dortmund director of football Michael Zorc told German television before kick-off.
"The decision was not easy, but there was no other choice. The suspension is only active for today."
- Bayern slip up again -
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