BERLIN: Bayern Munich were forced to wait at least another week for their fourth successive Bundesliga title after they were held 1-1 at home by Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday as Borussia Dortmund kept the title race alive with a 5-1 rout of VfL Wolfsburg.

The Bavarians, needing to win to clinch their 26th German championship with two games to spare, got off to a great start when Thomas Mueller scored in the sixth minute.

But Pep Guardiola’s defending champions were made to pay for a lacklustre performance when Andre Hahn equalised in the 72nd to stun the Allianz Arena.

Second-placed Dortmund closed the gap to five points with two rounds remaining thanks to two second-half goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and one each from Shinji Kagawa, Adrian Ramos and Marco Reus.

Bayern are still firm favourites with their remaining games away to mid-table Ingolstadt and at home to relegated Hanover 96.

The draw with Gladbach comes three days before Tuesday’s crunch Champions League home semi-final against Atletico Madrid with Bayern having lost the first leg 1-0 away last Wednesday.

Bayern were punished for sitting back after Mueller’s sixth-minute headed opener.

Gladbach, one of only two clubs to beat Bayern in the German league this season, hit back when Hahn slotted home having gone close just moments before.

A superb pass from Lars Stindl put Hahn in behind the Bayern defence and he wrong-footed Medhi Benatia before firing his shot past Manuel Neuer.

There was some good news for Bayern as Jerome Boateng played his first game since January.

The Germany defender is now in line to face Diego Simeone’s Atletico with a place in the Champions League final on May 28 at stake.

In Dortmund, Borussia hammered Wolfsburg with Japan midfielder Kagawa scoring their first, and creating their second, before Aubameyang came off the bench to score twice.

The Gabon striker now has 25 league goals this season, leaving him two short of Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski.

Dortmund took the lead when Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s bullet pass was deflected home by Kagawa, who then set up Ramos to leave Dortmund 2-0 up inside nine minutes.

Reus grabbed their third by chipping home with an hour gone.

Aubameyang replaced Ramos on 69 minutes and scored his first just eight minutes later when Mkhitaryan’s pass found him unmarked to header home, then netted a second header just a minute later before Wolfsburg’s Andre Schuerrle scored a consolation.

At the other end of the table, Hanover 96’s relegation was confirmed by their 3-1 defeat to Schalke 04.

Eintracht Frankfurt boosted their survival hopes with a 2-1 win at Darmstadt to go 16th, which carries a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off at the end of the season.

But 17th-placed Werder Bremen can push Frankfurt back down the table if they beat VfB Stuttgart, who are 15th, at home on Monday in a crunch relegation battle.

Mid-table Hamburg SV played out a goalless draw at home to Mainz 05, who stay seventh and on course for a Europa League place.

Hoffenheim looked to have escaped relegation under 28-year-old coach Julian Nagelsmann, the youngest in the Bundesliga’s history, and they are four points from the drop zone, after their 2-1 win at home to Ingolstadt.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2016