Hamburg scored twice in the first half to beat visitors Energie Cottbus 2-0 and stay within four points of Bundesliga leaders Hertha Berlin.Fourth-placed Hamburg are level on 45 points with Wolfsburg, who beat Schalke 4-3 on Friday and second-placed Bayern Munich, 3-0 winners at Bochum on Saturday.
Hertha, who beat Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 on Saturday, have 49 points.
In a lacklustre match Hamburg needed only a brief good spell to sink Cottbus closer towards relegation.
The goals came in a seven-minute period with striker Ivica Olic heading in a Mikael Tavares cross before Piotr Trochowski, who came on for injured Mladen Petric, doubled the lead with a long-range free kick in the 39th minute.