By Derek Wilson, dpa

Berlin (dpa) – Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa secured Bayern Munich a 2-0 win away to Hertha Berlin Saturday but Borussia Dortmund’s convincing 3-0 victory at VfB Stuttgart delayed the celebration of a fourth consecutive Bundesliga title.

Bayern could have been confirmed as champions had they won and Dortmund lost, and Vidal’s 48th minute deflection and Costa’s late wonder-strike ensured they did their part. However, Dortmund cruised to a simple win in Stuttgart to stay within seven points of the league leaders with three games remaining.

Elsewhere, bottom club Hanover avoided relegation for now by drawing
2-2 at 10-man Ingolstadt, Cologne guaranteed safety with a 4-1 win over Darmstadt and Augsburg took a step away from trouble 2-0 at Wolfsburg.

In the late game third-placed Bayer Leverkusen brilliantly came from behind to win 3-2 at Schalke and tighten their grip on an automatic Champions League spot.

Bayern coach Pep Guardiola perhaps had an eye on Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final with Atletico Madrid as Philipp Lahm was left out completely while Franck Ribery, Javi Martinez and Xabi Alonso were among those on the bench.

«It wasn’t a nice game for us. The first half was very difficult, we lost all our on-pitch duels,» Guardiola said.

It’s all in our hands now. We need one more win. I hope we put on a good game next week and become champions.»

Fourth-placed Hertha, recovering from their disappointing cup semi-final exit in midweek, made a positive start and had slightly better of a first half almost completely without chances.

But just moments into the second period Bayern made the breakthrough as Mario Goetze set up Vidal to shoot from distance and his drive took a deflection which left keeper Thomas Kraft helpless.

«In the first half we were the better, more aggressive team,» Hertha coach Pal Dardai said. «We wanted to keep it up in the second half but we conceded too quickly. Afterwards it was very hard to come back.»

And with 11 minutes remaining Costa cut in from the right and sent a tremendous shot high into the far top corner to seal the win.

«We got the three points and have taken a big step forward,» Goetze said. «There were tough moments in the first half. But the most important thing is that we overcame them.»

Struggling Stuttgart are just two points above the relegation play-off place having gone winless in six but were completely outclassed at home by Dortmund.

A glorious cross from Henrikh Mkhitaryan was turned in by Shinji Kagawa to open the scoring in 21 minutes and Christian Pulisic added a second just before the break when keeper Przemyslaw Tyton spilled Mkhitaryan’s shot.

The Armenian finally got on the scoresheet himself when he converted a rebound from Adrian Ramos’ 57th minute header to make the points safe before the hour.

«We scored good goals and have again produced a top team performance,» Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said.

In a classic game of two halves, Schalke dominated the opening period against Leverkusen and led through goals by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Leroy Sane in addition to missing an early penalty by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, his fifth failure from his last seven attempts.

But after the interval Julian Brandt, Karim Bellarabi and Javier Hernandez turned the game round by the hour mark as Leverkusen dominated, also hitting the woodwork three times.

Leverkusen are now five points clear of Hertha while Schalke remain seventh with the pressure increasing on coach Andre Breitenreiter.

Hanover realistically had to win in Ingolstadt, who climbed to ninth, to keep alive any hope of survival but fell behind early to a header from Alfredo Morales. The hosts then had Romain Bregerie red carded for bringing down Felix Klaus but Moritz Hartmann nodded home a free kick to double the lead.

Hanover gave everything in the second half and levelled through Hiroki Sakai and Hiroshi Kiyotake but couldn’t find a winner and could be relegated Sunday if second-bottom Eintracht Frankfurt defeat Mainz.

«It was great to see how the team came back in the second half,» Hanover coach Daniel Stendel said. «But at the end we’re disappointed that we have only taken a point from here.»

Cologne had doubles from Anthony Modeste and Marcel Risse to thank for their win over Darmstadt, who had equalized through Jerome Gondorf. Cologne are now safe on 40 points in eighth while Darmstadt, 13th on 35, are just four better than Bremen.

Augsburg struck through Alfred Finnbogason and Halil Altintop to win 2-0 at Wolfsburg, who have slipped to 10th. Augsburg can breathe a little easier in the relegation battle having climbed to 12th.