Borussia Dortmund overcame a traumatic week to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Dortmund, victims of an attack on their team bus before Tuesday's Champions League clash with Monaco, took just two minutes to open the scoring at Iduna Park through Marco Reus, who back-heeled the ball in following fine work in the box from Christian Pulisic.
Marco Fabian equalised inside the half-hour mark with a brilliant strike in off the top of the crossbar from 25 yards, but Sokratis Papastathopoulos restored the home side's lead in spectacular fashion a little more than five minutes later.
Sokratis, a defender, wrong-footed one of his opponents with a dummy and let fly inside the far post.
Bayern Munich saw their lead at the summit reduced to eight points after being held to a goalless draw by 10-man Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena.
The reigning champions, who are closing in on a fifth successive domestic title, dominated the match but were denied by some resolute home defending, especially towards the end of the first half when a goal seemed inevitable.
Douglas Costa bamboozled his way into a scoring position but was denied by last-gasp defending and the Leverkusen rearguard came to the rescue once more when Omer Toprak cleared a Arturo Vidal effort off the line.
Just before the hour mark, the presence of Thomas Muller forced Tin Jedvaj to make a rash challenge when acting as the last line of outfield defence and the Croatian was shown his second yellow card.
Muller created a magnificent chance for Lahm when he slotted the ball through a defender into the six-yard box but somehow the substitute steered his shot wide of the left post when it appeared harder to miss.
RB Leipzig tightened their grip on second place by crushing Freiburg 4-0 at the Red Bull Arena.
Naby Keita, reportedly a £26 million transfer target for Liverpool, was shown an early yellow card but he helped Leipzig dominate a one-sided match.
Their control was reflected by first-half goals by Yussuf Poulsen and Timo Werner and then Keita added a third just six minutes after the interval before Diego Demme completed the rout.
The victory confirmed they at least have a place in the Champions League qualifiers, and should seal a spot in the group stage as they sit eight points ahead of fourth-placed Dortmund.
Adam Szalai scored both goals as Hoffenheim built an early 2-0 lead against Borussia Monchengladbach -- the prelude to an eight-goal thriller.
Jannik Vestergaard and Lars Stindl were on target to level the scores, but Kerem Demirbay restored Hoffenheim's advantage in the 59th minute.
The thrills continued when Mark Uth make it 4-2 before Mahmoud Dahoud set up a grandstand finishing by pulling one back, only for Demirbay to seal a 5-3 win for Hoffenheim with a minute remaining.
The win keeps Hoffenheim in third and on the brink of joining Leipzig as Champions League debutants.
Wolfsburg secured a potentially crucial 3-0 victory over fellow strugglers Ingolstadt.
A Markus Suttner own goal put Wolfsburg on course before Yunus Malli struck a second, Mario Gomez completing the scoring in the 81st minute.
Augsburg grabbed a lifeline in their battle against relegation by defeating Cologne 2-1 at WWK Arena.
Martin Hinteregger and Paul Verhaegh netted inside the opening 25 minutes, before an own goal from Philipp Max gave Cologne a glimmer of hope that failed to materialise into anything tangible.
The relegation fears of Mainz were also boosted after an own goal by U.S. international John Brooks propelled them to a 1-0 victory over Hertha Berlin.