Jamie Leweling grabbed a first-half brace and Deniz Undav scored again as Stuttgart cruised to a 4-0 home victory over Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Nikolas Nartey scored in stoppage time as the German Cup holders drew level with third-placed Hoffenheim on 46 points.
Stuttgart are two points ahead of fifth-placed RB Leipzig, who came from a goal down to win 2-1 away at Hamburg in Sunday’s late game.
Leweling praised coach Sebastian Hoeness, who reached 100 Bundesliga games as Stuttgart manager.
“He developed me into the player I am today. He helped me a lot, gave me a lot of confidence,” said Leweling.
“I think I’ve been repaying him with my performances -- of course not always with two goals every game.”
Wolfsburg, who haven’t been relegated since promotion to the Bundesliga in 1997, have won just one of their last 10 games and now sit second bottom, three points from safety.
Stuttgart welcomed the Wolves to south-western Germany fresh from beating Celtic 4-2 over two legs to reach the Europa League last 16, where they will face Porto.
Undav pounced on a poor clearance to put Stuttgart ahead with his 14th league goal after 21 minutes.
Chris Fuehrich found Leweling on the half-hour mark to double Stuttgart’s lead and the Germany winger scored again just before half-time, volleying in from the right side of the box.
Stuttgart added a fourth late on as Nartey scored with the final kick of the match.
Leipzig fell behind to a Fabio Vieira goal at Hamburg but a terrific Romulo backheel and Yan Diomande’s well-taken strike turned the match to help the visitors keep in touch with the top four.
Romulo missed a second-half penalty but it did not matter as Leipzig grabbed a first league win since early February.
“This could trigger something,” Leipzig captain David Raum told DAZN, referring to his club’s Champions League prospects.
“It’s important we were able to turn a game around after being down.”
Goals from Fares Chaibi and Jean-Matteo Bahoya lifted Eintracht Frankfurt to a 2-0 home win over Freiburg and past the visitors into seventh spot.
Chaibi snuck a low shot into the bottom corner with 64 minutes gone. The Algerian then passed to Bahoya who guided the ball over Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu nine minutes from time to seal victory.
Frankfurt have picked up seven points from four matches since Spaniard Albert Riera took over as manager, with their only loss coming at league leaders Bayern Munich.
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