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Hertha Berlin needed a lucky Andriy Voronin goal to beat Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 to maintain a four-point cushion at the top of the Bundesliga.

Voronin, on loan from Liverpool, scored his eighth goal in six matches when his close-range shot in the 50th minute was saved by keeper Rene Adler and the ball deflected back off the home striker and into the net.

Champions Bayern Munich, without injured midfielder Franck Ribery and striker Luca Toni, eased past VfL Bochum 3-0 with goals from Ze Roberto, Philipp Lahm and Martin Demichelis to stay in the title hunt on 45 points.

VfL Wolfsburg, on the same points as second-placed Bayern, recorded a 4-3 triumph over Schalke 04 on Friday.

Hoffenheim dropped to fourth with 43 points from 24 games after a 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt.

With Bundesliga players wearing black armbands in memory of the victims of this week's German school shooting, matches kicked off after a minute's silence.

Hertha were cautious against Leverkusen and both sides carved out only one chance in the first half but neither Bayer striker Stefan Kiessling nor Hertha's Rodnei could put their headers on target.

Voronin then struck in the second half to earn Hertha their third win in a row.

Bochum's Christoph Dabrowski should have given the home team the lead after 14 minutes when he dribbled past two defenders and fired from 10 metres but Bayern keeper Michael Rensing blocked the shot.

Bayern, who went through to the Champions League quarter-finals with a record 12-1 aggregate win over Sporting in midweek, failed to create a single scoring chance in the opening 30 minutes.

On the half hour mark they also lost striker Miroslav Klose, who limped off to be replaced by Jose Sosa.

It took a defender and a midfielder to combine to break the deadlock in the 32nd minute when Daniel van Buyten headed on a cross for Ze Roberto to shoot home from 14 metres.

Bochum were reduced to 10 men three minutes after the restart when Marc Pfertzel fouled Sosa in the box, Lukas Podolski driving his penalty wide.

Defender Lahm made it 2-0 when he raced into the box and unleashed a trademark, low curling shot from 11 metres.

Demichelis then completed the scoring in the 90th minute.

Third from bottom Borussia Moenchengladbach notched their second consecutive win, beating Cologne 4-2 away, while Borussia Dortmund twice squandered a two-goal lead to draw 4-4 at Hanover 96.

Reuters