Guinea's Ibrahima Traore came off the bench to score Borussia Moenchengladbach's winner in their 2-1 victory at strugglers Hertha Berlin on Sunday to reclaim third place in the Bundesliga.

The game had been heading for a draw after an early goal by Gladbach's Germany striker Max Kruse was cancelled out by a headed equaliser from Hertha's Swiss midfielder Valentin Stocker on 13 minutes.

Traore came on after 73 minutes and scored his first goal for Gladbach since joining from Stuttgart last year, drilling home the winner five minutes from time.

Lucien Favre-coached Gladbach went back up to third after Bayer Leverkusen had briefly usurped them by beating newly-crowned champions Bayern Munich 2-0 on Saturday with goals by Hakan Calhanoglu and Julian Brandt.

With Leverkusen now two points behind Moenchengladbach, the sides will square off at Gladbach's Borussia Park on Saturday in a key clash with the top three in Germany qualifying directly for the Champions League.

"Now we're looking forward to playing Leverkusen, we really want to win that to achieve our goal of direct Champions League qualification," said Gladbach's defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka.

Hamburg escaped the relegation places for the first time since March after Gojko Kacar's last-gasp goal sealed a 2-1 win at 10-man Mainz.

Hamburg were gifted a first-half lead thanks to an own goal when Heiko Westermann's cross clipped Mainz's Julian Baumgartlinger and flew into the net on 37 minutes.

Mainz threatened to equalise when South Korea international Joo Ja-Cheol hit the post after some good work by Japan striker Shinji Okazaki on 69 minutes just before the hosts drew level.

Spanish midfielder Jairo Bustara put in a cross which Mainz midfielder Yunus Malli fired home.

But Hamburg's Serbian international Kacar, who is out of contract at the end of the season, slammed home his shot from just outside the area on 87 minutes to give the visitors the three points.

"It's simply now the case that the players believe they can win, we'll celebrate now, but tomorrow we start preparing for Friday's game against Freiburg," said Bruno Labbadia, Hamburg's fourth coach this season.

Mainz were reduced to 10 men on 90 minutes when defender Daniel Brosinski was shown a straight red card for fouling Artjoms Rudnevs who was through on goal.

There was more bad news for Mainz as veteran Colombia midfielder Elkin Soto, 34, was stretchered off after dislocating his knee in a challenge with Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart and will miss the rest of the season.

"I am really sorry, I couldn't do anything about it, I was just going for the ball," said Van der Vaart.

Hamburg are battling to defend a proud record as the only side in Germany's top flight never to have been relegated. The win drags them up to 14th while Mainz stay tenth.

On Saturday, second-placed Wolfsburg gave up a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 at relegation threatened Hanover 96.

Wolves' German Cup final opponents Borussia Dortmund also drew 1-1 at Hoffenheim with both sides chasing a Europa League spot for next season, but stay just outside the top six.

Fifth place Schalke secured their first win since March with a 3-2 against VfB Stuttgart to keep them on course for next season's Europa League.