THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FRANKFURT, Germany — Hoffenheim’s fairy-tale run in the Bundesliga picked up speed when the surprising newcomer rallied to win 3-1 in Bochum and remain atop the standings on Wednesday.
Defending champion Bayern Munich also came from behind to win on the road, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 to move into fourth.
In other games, Hamburger SV beat Stuttgart 2-0, Hertha Berlin blanked Hannover 3-0 and Borussia Dortmund won 1-0 in Cologne.
After 10 rounds, Hoffenheim, which competed in the third division two years ago, has 23 points, one more than Bayer Leverkusen, which won 2-0 at Werder Bremen on Tuesday.
Hamburger SV has 20 in third and Bayern is ahead of Hertha Berlin on goal difference at 18.
In Bochum, Dennis Grote stunned Hoffenheim only three minutes into the game, driving in a low shot from the edge of the area after a headed clearance.
Chinedu Obasi missed two chances for Hoffenheim late in the first half.
But the highest scoring team in the league stormed back after the break and turned the game in a seven-minute span.
Demba Ba scored a spectacular equalizer in the 64th when he used his heel to put the ball into the net from close range, then Ibisevic converted a penalty in the 69th for his league-high 11th goal of the season. Two minutes later, Carlos Eduardo finished a quick break with a flick over Bochum’s goalkeeper to make it 3-1.
Any hopes Bochum had of getting back into the game were dashed in the 77th when Christoph Dabrowski was sent off with his second yellow card of the match after one foul too many on Adreas Beck.
Hoffenheim, a club based in a village of fewer than 3,300 people but backed by software billionaire Dietmar Hopp, is the runaway hit of the league so far and has four straight wins.
Bayern was without striker Luca Toni because of bruised ribs but Eintracht was missing nine through injuries.
Lukas Podolski’s early effort was punched away by Oka Nikolov, the Frankfurt goalkeeper. Nikolov produced another outstanding save to deny Bastian Schweinsteiger from close range. Tim Borowski’s shot then beat Nikolov, but sailed just outside the post.
Bayern paid the price for missing chances 10 minutes into the second half when central defender Martin Demichelis’ clumsy attempt at a clearance diverted the ball into his own net.
After Nikos Liberopoulos drove his free kick over the goal, Bayern got the equalizer when Franck Ribery charged down the right flank and passed the ball back to Miroslav Klose, whose shot caught Nikolov on the wrong foot.
Klose repaid the favour to Ribery by providing the pass for Bayern’s second goal. Klose had his shot blocked by Nikolov but the striker collected the rebound and passed back to Ribery, who slotted a volley inside the far post.
Frankfurt wasted a couple of late chances and Bayern held on to snap the home side’s two-game winning streak and extend its own winning run to three games.
Mladen Petric wasted a great opportunity for Hamburg early but the home side earned a penalty when Thomas Hitzlsperger tripped David Jarolim and Piotr Trochowski converted it by sending Jens Lehmann the wrong way.
Lehmann prevented Hamburg from taking a two-goal lead when he tipped Guy Demel’s powerful shot onto the crossbar.
But Lehmann was unable to do anything when Mario Gomez deflected a shot from Joris Mathijsen into his own net in the 74th as Hamburg made up for its 3-0 loss in Hoffenheim on Sunday.
In Berlin, the home team dominated but could not score before Marko Pantelic broke the deadlock in the 63rd. Andriy Voronin and Valeri Domovchiyski added goals for Berlin.
Nelson Valdez hit the post for Dortmund in Cologne and Florian Kringe scored in the second half to give the visitors the win.