BERLIN (AFP) - Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart had his birthday celebrations spoiled as his side were held to a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, failing in their bid to reclaim the Bundesliga's third place.

Dutchman van der Vaart turns 25 on Monday and gave his side an early lead after German international Piotr Trochowski whipped in a cross he met to bag his 10th goal of the season.

His 28th minute strike puts him level with World Cup winner Luca Toni as the league's joint top scorer, before the Italian plays for Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen in Sunday's crucial showdown.

But Hamburg were denied reclaiming third spot when Bayer's Germany defender Manuel Friedrich met Swiss midfielder Tranquillo Barnetta's cross on the hour to make it 1-1.

"We saw a very entertaining match, with many chances on both sides," said Bayer coach Michael Skibbe.

"There were many chances on both sides and I am pleased with my team's performance, we exerted ourselves better in the second half and deserved the draw."

His opposite number Huub Stevens was disappointed to miss out on taking third place and said both Bayern and Bremen will benefit from Bayer and Hamburg sharing the spoils.

"It was a good game and both sides played some attractive football, the fans can be happy.

"But other teams benefit from the draw here and we only picked up a point each."

Both sides are now on 34 points - five behind league leaders Bayern and the German giants could put six points between themselves and second-place Werder Bremen when the teams meet at Munich's Allianz Arena on Sunday.

Bayern are missing midfielder Franck Ribery, who has an injured hamstring, while Schalke 04 are at neighbours and bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund on Sunday.

On Saturday, two goals in three minutes gave Karlsruhe a 2-2 draw at Hanover as Hanover midfielder Jan Rosenthal struck three minutes from time to snatch a late point for his side.

A header from Australian striker Joshua Kennedy on 61 minutes and a left-footed strike from Hungarian midfielder Tamas Hajnal three minutes later had looked to give Karlsruhe the lead until Rosenthal struck.

Ten-man VfB Stuttgart are tenth after they were humbled 3-1 at home by Hertha Berlin.

Two goals from either boot of Hertha's Serbian striker Marko Pantelic, who now as nine league goals this season, put the Berlin side in the driving seat after Mario Gomez had equalised for Stuttgart.

Brazilian striker Raffael scored his first goal since his switch from FC Zurich last month to complete the scoring before Stuttgart's Matthieu Delpierre was shown a second yellow and a red for a rugby-style tackle on Raffael.

Veteran Czech striker Jan Koller opened his account for Nuremberg when he scored his first goal for his club since his switch from Monaco last month as his side drew with Hansa Rostock.

The result keeps Koller's side in the bottom three while Rostock are up to 14th.

There was a goal bonanza in VfL Bochum's 3-3 draw with second from Energie Cottbus.

The news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be their guest as an honoury fan for next weekend's game against Borussia Dortmund seemed to inspire striker Branko Jelic who struck 11 minutes from time to share the points.

And bottom side Duisburg stay rooted to the foot of the table as they were beaten 2-1 at VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday.

On Friday night, Czech Republic striker Martin Fenin scored his fourth goal for new club Eintracht Frankfurt to give his side a 2-1 win at Arminia Bielefeld.