Bayern Munich finished the weekend nine points clear in the Bundesliga after second-placed VfL Wolfsburg were held to a 1-1 draw at home by mid-table Paderborn on Sunday.

Wolves’ took a 1-0 lead after Paderborn centre-back Rafael Gomez turned the ball into his own net on 17 minutes and the hosts should have finished the first-half 3-0 up.

Paderborn goalkeeper Lukas Kruse, who had a superb match, saved a penalty by Wolfsburg’s Ivan Perisic with half an hour gone, then Wolves’ Dutch striker Bas Dost had a goal ruled out just before the break after fouling a defender.

Paderborn midfielder Alban Meha converted a penalty on 51 minutes to pull his side level, before both Dost, twice, and Perisic were only denied by point-blank saves by Kruse as Wolves hunted a second goal to no avail.

“We failed to win because of Lukas Kruse,” admitted Wolves coach Dieter Hecking, whose side had 21 shots on goal compared to Paderborn’s six.

“If you have 20 chances, you have to get more than one goal.

“Bayern are in their own class.

“They’d need to lose three times, while we’d need to win three times for us to catch them, we’re not ‘hunting Bayern’, but we’re on the right path.”

Earlier, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Moenchengladbach claimed a point each with a 1-1 draw to move up the table to third and fourth respectively to lag six points behind Wolfsburg.

Hosts Leverkusen opened the scoring at the BayArena when Turkey midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu curled a superb shot over Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer with 18 minutes gone.

But Gladbach drew level when Dutch defender Roel Brouwers scored his first goal of the season after he poked home his shot from a corner just before the half-time break.

Bayern maintained their iron grip on this season’s Bundesliga after Saturday’s 4-0 win at Augsburg saw their Bavarian neighbours drop from third to fifth.

Bayern underlined their status as Bundesliga champions-in-waiting as Arjen Robben scored twice as Munich scored four second-half goals without reply with Medhi Benatia and Robert Lewandowski also on target.

Bayern can further hammer home their superiority later this week when they host Freiburg on Tuesday before travelling to face Mainz on Friday in their last league match of 2014.

“Bayern Munich are in a different league, I think we can all agree on that,” said Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl after his side’s thrashing kept Munich on course to claim a third consecutive league title.

Despite qualifying for the Champions League’s last 16, Borussia Dortmund dropped back into the relegation places after slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin.

Dortmund’s ninth defeat in 15 league games — the most in Germany’s top flight — saw them drop to 16th from 14th having started December at the bottom.

Julian Schieber scored the first-half winner against his old club while, to rub salt into Dortmund’s wounds, attacking midfielder Heinrikh Mkhitaryan has now been ruled out for six weeks with a torn thigh.

Only Hanover 96’s 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen prevented Dortmund dropping to second from bottom as Spanish striker Joselu scored twice for Hanover to claim four goals in his last three league games.

Having scraped into the Champions League’s last 16 with a 1-0 win at Slovenia’s Maribor on Wednesday, Schalke 04 slumped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Cologne.

Nigeria striker Anthony Ujah scored his fourth goal in five league games just after the break before midfielder Matthias Lehmann netted a penalty.

Leroy Sane scored his first goal for Schalke by way of consolation on only the 18-year-old’s fourth league appearance as his club dropped to sixth.

Hamburg were held to a goalless draw at Freiburg with both teams just above the bottom three.

On Friday, Hoffenheim enjoyed a 3-2 win at Eintracht Frankfurt to stay seventh and just outside the European places for next season.