Ibisevic helps Stuttgart sink Hoffenheim

Sinsheim, Germany – Stuttgart's Vedad Ibisevic scored a half brace to hand his former side Hoffenheim a 2-1 defeat at Rhein- Arena on Friday.

Ibisevic tallied the opening goal after eight minutes when he accepted a cross from Khalid Boulahrouz and easily beat goalkeeper Tom Starke.

Boulahrouz played provider again for Ibisevic shortly before halftime with a cross that the Bosnian headed past Starke to double the lead for the visitors.

The hosts pulled a goal back 15 minutes from time when Fabian Johnson was fouled by Stuttgart's Francisco Maza, which allowed Sejad Salihovic to convert from the penalty spot.

But Hoffenheim was unable to find an equalizer and remains in the bottom half of the Bundesliga, with Stuttgart climbing to seventh.

League-leaders Borussia Dortmund will play host to Werder Bremen in a top-six clash, while Bayern Munich, which closed the gap on Dortmund to five points, travels to relegation-battling Hertha Berlin.

Monchengladbach is three points back of Bayern and will try to snap a three- game winless streak when the club visits Bayer Leverkusen, which is seven points adrift of a place in the top four.

Schalke owns the fourth spot in the league and travels to last-place Kaiserslautern on Sunday with the hosts having failed to win any of their last 15 games in league play.

Augsburg resides one point above the bottom three and hosts Mainz, second- from-the-bottom Freiburg visits a Hamburg side that is winless in its last four games, Nurnberg and Wolfsburg are level on 31 points and meet up at EasyCredit Stadium and Hannover hosts Cologne in the other contest on Sunday.