Bayer Leverkusen have closed the gap on leaders Bayern Munich to seven points with a 1-0 victory over Nuremberg at home.

The hosts could have made the breakthrough in the opening seconds of the match had Hajime Hosogai's shot from outside the box not been saved by Raphael Schafer.

Minutes later Simon Rolfes came close to scoring for Bayer with another long-range attempt, before Andre Schurrle forced Schafer into a save.

Schafer was again called into action just moments later when Stefan Kiessling took aim at the Nuremberg goal from close range.

The visitors had a chance of their own in the 11th minute when Sebastian Polter shot on the Bayer goal from inside the penalty box after being released by Hiroshi Kiyotake, but Bernd Leno made a good save.

Midway through the first half, Kiessling's header from a Lars Bender cross narrowly went wide and then on the half-hour mark Polter was unlucky to see his header from a Timothy Chandler delivery crash against the Bayer crossbar.

Bayer continued to dominate proceedings at the BayArena, with Schurrle and Kiessling both coming close in the following five minutes.

Then in the 37th minute the hosts finally took the lead when, teed up by Schurrle, Kiessling fired in from close range.

Nuremberg could have restored parity on two occasions in the opening five minutes of the second half when Mike Frantz and Polter both had chances.

Then Gonzalo Castro saw his shot from close range saved by Schafer in the 63rd minute.

Bayer continued to look for their second goal of the afternoon for the remainder of the second half, as Kiessling, Castro and Manuel Friedrich came close for the hosts.