Hansa Rostock and Duisburg were relegated on Saturday after a dramatic afternoon of Bundesliga action.

Home defeats at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich respectively sealed the fate of the pair - and at one stage it looked as if Nurnberg would join them.

Thomas von Heesen's men lost 1-0 at Hertha Berlin, but a late Borussia Dortmund equaliser at Arminia Bielefeld means they live to fight another day.

After the 2-2 draw with Dortmund, Bielefeld are now two points ahead of Nurnberg with one match remaining and the pair will battle to avoid the one remaining relegation spot on the final day of the season.

Nurnberg, who have a far superior goal difference, host Schalke next Saturday, while Bielefeld travel to Stuttgart.

Raffael scored the only goal of the game after 74 minutes as Nurnberg fell in the capital - a result which would have relegated them had Bielefeld won.

That was on the cards for much of the afternoon, with a Thorben Marx penalty (24) and Artur Wichniarek's strike (33) sandwiching a Delron Buckley effort (28) to give Bielefeld a 2-1 lead.

But, despite Robert Kovac's 78th-minute dismissal, Dortmund levelled things seven minutes from time through an own goal from home keeper Rowen Fernandez to ensure Bielefeld must endure a nervy final day of the season.

That is not a luxury which will be afforded to Hansa Rostock, who lost 2-1 to 10-man Leverkusen.

They fell two goals down to penalties from Simon Rolfes (40) and Gonzalo Castro (58), but pulled one back through Addy Waku Menga (67).

A red card for Leverkusen substitute Jens Hegeler with six minutes remaining gave them hope of salvaging something from the game, but results elsewhere meant they were relegated come what may.

Duisburg mounted a sterling comeback but still lost 3-2 to newly-crowned champions Bayern Munich.

Bayern appeared to be running away with the game after goals from Andreas Ottl and Lukas Podolski (two) put them 3-0 up inside 20 minutes.

But the home side responded positively in the second half with Mihai Tararache and Markus Daun narrowing the gap within 10 minutes of the restart.

Energie Cottbus secured their Bundesliga status with a 2-0 win over Hamburg -their fifth straight at home - thanks to goals from Stiven Rivic (29) and Dennis Sorensen (84).

At the other end of the table, the race for second continues after WerderBremen and Schalke both won.

Bremen hammered Hannover 6-1 with goals from six different scorers.

They were 2-0 up at half-time through Hugo Almeida (15) and Naldo (27), before Tim Borowski (73) made it three after the break.

Ivan Klasnic (80), Markus Rosenberg (82) and Aaron Hunt (87) piled on the misery for Hannover and the hosts could even afford a missed penalty from Diego, before Hannover finally got on the scoresheet through Sszabolcs Huszti in stoppage time.

Schalke's win was more modest - 1-0 over Eintracht Frankfurt - courtesy of a goal from Mladen Krstajic in the 65th minute which keeps them within two points of Bremen in a bid for automatic qualification for the Champions League.

Wolfsburg took a big step towards a UEFA Cup berth by thrashing 10-man Stuttgart 4-0.

Early goals from Marcelinho and Edin Dzeko came either side of a red card for Stuttgart captain Fernando Meira in the 18th minute.

And with the man advantage, Wolfsburg completed the rout with second-half strikes from Ricardo Costa and Ashkan Dejagah.

In the day's other game, goals from Mimoun Azaouagh, Christoph Dabrowski and Stanislav Sestak gave Bochum a 3-1 win at Karlsruhe, who replied in the dying minutes through Mario Eggiman.

Sporting Life / Eurosport