Bayern Munich scraped past Hertha Berlin 1-0 courtesy of an Arjen Robben goal to stretch their lead at the top of the table to 10 points and extend their unbeaten Bundesliga run to 16 games over two seasons.
The champions never hit top form but hardly needed to against a toothless Hertha who rarely ventured out of their half.
Dutchman Robben fired the ball in from 18 metres after a first-half flick from Thomas Mueller as the Bavarians cruised to their 10th win in 13 league matches to bounce back from the midweek Champions League defeat at Manchester City.
But there was little else of note from the club that on Friday posted a turnover of 528.7 million euros ($658.44 million) for 2013/14, with the 76,000 in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin getting only brief glimpses of Bayern's attacking power.
Hertha keeper Thomas Kraft twice frustrated striker Robert Lewandowski, stopping one effort from point-blank range in the second half.
Bayern are on 33 points, 10 ahead of VfL Wolfsburg who take on Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday.
Fellow Champions League combatants Bayer Leverkusen crushed Cologne 5-1 in the Rhine derby to join Wolfsburg on 23 points.
Swiss international Josip Drmic and Germany's Karim Bellarabi scored twice apiece for Leverkusen and Hakan Calhanoglu converted a stunning free kick.
Schalke 04 bounced back from their 5-0 Champions League demolition by Chelsea on Tuesday, winning 4-1 against Mainz 05 with a hat-trick from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
The win lifted Roberto Di Matteo's team up to sixth place on 20 points.
Werder Bremen continued their climb under coach Viktor Skripnik with a 4-0 victory over promoted Paderborn, their third win in four games under the Ukrainian. The 2004 champions are now 14th.
Bottom club Borussia Dortmund, last season's runners-up, are in action on Sunday at Eintracht Frankfurt.
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