BERLIN: Kevin-Prince Boateng returned to his hometown club and scored for Eintracht Frankfurt to beat Hertha Berlin 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Sunday, and fourth-place Borussia Moenchengladbach missed the chance to go second.
Boateng, who grew up in the Berlin locality of Wedding and joined Hertha as a youth, let fly with his left boot to send the ball inside the top left corner with 10 minutes remaining.
The 30-year-old did not celebrate the goal out of respect for his former club. Boateng played 42 league games for Hertha before leaving for Tottenham in 2007.
Davie Selke had fired Hertha into an early lead, but Marius Wolf equalized around 10 minutes later after some lacklustre defending.
Fabian Lustenberger struck the crossbar for Hertha in the final minutes.
Frankfurt climbed to eighth while Hertha is 12th after its fifth defeat.
RIVALS FALTER
Moenchengladbach could have overtaken Schalke and Leipzig to move second but slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Wolfsburg.
Yunus Malli scored one goal and brilliantly set up another as the home side climbed away from the relegation zone.
Malli opened the scoring in the fourth minute, then had the presence of mind when faced by three defenders to chip the ball through for Daniel Didavi to score Wolfsburg's second with a lob 20 minutes later.
'Gladbach dominated possession but Josuha Guilavogui wrapped up Wolfsburg's win midway through the second half with a fine shot from distance.
'Gladbach stayed fourth.
It proved a good weekend for Bayern Munich with its closest rivals dropping points. Second-place Leipzig lost 4-0 at Hoffenheim, Schalke drew with Cologne and Borussia Dortmund's winless run continued at Bayer Leverkusen. Bayern, which beat Hannover 3-1 on Saturday, extended its lead to six points after 14 games.