Hamburg remain unbeaten in three league games under coach Bert van Marwijk after picking up a point in their thrilling 3-3 draw with 10-man VfB Stuttgart on Sunday.

Ex-Holland coach Van Marwijk took charge in September after predecessor Thorsten Fink was fired following a disastrous start to the season, including a 6-2 drubbing at Borussia Dortmund.

Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart earned his side a point when he equalised for the third time for the hosts on 67 minutes.

Stuttgart spent the last six minutes with 10 men after centre-back Antonio Ruediger was shown a straight red for hitting Dutch midfielder Van der Vaart in the ribs.

"We have improved again and are playing football the way I like it," said Van Marwijk as Hamburg rallied at 3-2 down after ex-Arsenal defender Johan Djourou conceded a second-half own goal.

"We had a couple of really nice attacks, which pleased me. We had a bit of bad luck with the own goal."

After a draw at Frankfurt and a 5-0 hammering of Nuremberg, the point lifts Hamburg up to 14th, having been in the bottom three when Van Marwijk took over, while Stuttgart are eighth.

On Saturday, Bayern Munich extended their unbeaten Bundesliga run to 34 games by coming from behind for a 4-1 home win over Mainz to go back to the top.

Having last lost in the German league back in October 2012, Bayern are now just two matches short of equalling Hamburg's 30-year-old, 36-match streak.

Bayern were punished for a poor first-half in Munich when Mainz striker Shawn Parker fired home after capitalising on a mistake by centre-back Jerome Boateng.

But Bayern roared back when Germany midfielder Mario Goetze came off the bench for the second-half and played a key part in the hosts' first three second-half goals.

His dream pass through to Arjen Robben allowed the winger to equalise on 50 minutes and two minutes later, Goetze combined with the Dutchman for Germany's Thomas Mueller to fire home to make it 2-1.

With Bayern finally making their 80 percent possession pay off, Goetze fired in a cross for Mario Mandzukic to score their third on 69 minutes.

And when Bayern vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger was fouled in the area, Mueller stepped up to drill home the penalty for his second of the game eight minutes from time.

Bayer Leverkusen had briefly gone top on Friday thanks to a controversial 'phantom' goal in their 2-1 win at Hoffenheim.

The German Football Federation (DFB) will investigate on Monday while Hoffenheim have called for a replay after Stefan Kiessling's 70th-minute winner came in bizarre circumstances.

Replays showed his header only ended in the back of the net after flying through a hole in the side netting.

Schalke 04, who host Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday, needed a 91st-minute winner from Roman Neustaedter to seal a 3-2 win at bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig.

Dortmund, who are at Arsenal on Tuesday in the Champions League, stayed second with a hard-fought 1-0 win at home to Hanover 96.

Germany winger Marco Reus hit the winning penalty after just four minutes when Hanover's Japan defender Hiroki Sakai fouled left-back Erik Durm in the area.

Borussia stay second and level on 22 points with third-placed Leverkusen, just a point behind Bayern.

Second-from-bottom Freiburg picked up a point with a goalless draw at Werder Bremen, while Eintracht Frankfurt drew 1-1 at home to Nuremberg.

Later Sunday, Augsburg are home to Wolfsburg.