Hoffenheim, a newly-elevated club that had dominated German top league regularly this season, ran out 3-1 winners in Koeln on Saturday.

Hoffenheim are now three points ahead of Leverkusen and Bayern to take the first place of the standings.

Hoffenheim had started the match the better side, with Matthias Jaissle and Sejad Salihovic going close.

The host grew stronger as the match progressed, and Milivoje Novakovic was unlucky not to open the scoring after 26 minutes when his shot hit the post.

Hoffenheim were more clinical, and Demba Ba opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the seasons just six minutes later.

The second half started even more colorful as referee Deniz Aytekin sent off two players inside just three minutes.

Koeln's Kevin McKenna was shown a straight red for a nasty tackling against Salihovic, Hoffenheim's Luis Gustavo picked up his second booking soon after.

The ten men from Hoffenheim doubled their advantage midway through the second half when goalgetter Vedad Ibisevic scored a typical poacher's goal.

Petit pulled one back for Koeln in the 78th minute, but Ibisevic made sure of the win for Hoffenheim with his 16th goal ofthe season two minutes from time.

Also on Saturday, Bayern Munich beat bottom team Cottbus 4-1, keeping alive their hopes of leading the championship into the winter break.

In face of 69,000 audience at the Allianz Arena, Ervin Skela gave Cottbus an unexpected lead after 25 minutes, but Bayern dictated play from the start.

French international Franck Ribery, Martin Demichelis, MiroslavKlose and Italian striker Luca Toni scored four goals to seal the sweep victory.

With 28 points in hand, Bayern remain third in the Bundesliga standings on 28 points from 14 games, but are now just three points off leaders Hoffenheim but level on points with second-placed Leverkusen, which lost to Bielefeld 1-2 on Saturday.

Turkish star Halil Altinop re-discovered his nose for goal as Schalke 04 ended their downward spiral as they swept Moenchengladbach 3-1

In other matches, Wolfsburg beat Stuttgart 4-1, Frankfurt thrashed Hannover 4-0 and Bochum lost to Berlin 2-3. Enditem