Saturday 18 October 2014 22:30, UK
Mario Gotze and Philipp Lahm hit braces as Bayern Munich romped to a 6-0 victory over Werder Bremen to establish a four-point lead at the Bundesliga summit.
Mario Gotze and Philipp Lahm hit braces as Bayern Munich romped to a 6-0 victory over Werder Bremen to establish a four-point lead at the Bundesliga summit.
Bayern skipper Lahm gave his side the lead on 20 minutes and they doubled their advantage seven minutes later when Xabi Alonso found the back of the net.
Thomas Muller made it 3-0 from the penalty spot three minutes before half-time, but there was enough time for Gotze to stretch Bayern's lead further before the interval.
A shell-shocked Bremen did improve in the second half but Lahm and Gotze added late goals to complete a comprehensive victory for the reigning Bundesliga champions.
Borussia Monchengladbach underlined their status as the main challengers to Bayern this season by ending Hannover's perfect home record with a 3-0 win at the Niedersachsenstadion.
Max Kruse (two) and Granit Xhaka supplied the goals for Lucien Favre's men, who have yet to lose this season in 13 competitive matches.
As a result, the Foals cemented second spot, four points adrift of Pep Guardiola's side.
Cologne piled further misery on Borussia Dortmund with a 2-1 win at the Mungersdorfer Stadion which leaves Jurgen Klopp's men languishing in 14th place.
Kevin Vogt and Simon Zoller scored the goals for the Goats with Ciro Immobile's second-half equaliser not enough for the Westphalians, who continue to disappoint in the Bundesliga this year.
As has been the case all season, Dortmund created enough chances to win it, but a mistake by Roman Weidenfeller proved costly as they dropped points again ahead of what they will hope will be a tonic in the Champions League in midweek.
Stuttgart came from three goals down to snatch a 3-3 draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen and continue their recent revival.
Two goals from Son Heung-min and a Karim Bellarabi strike seemed to have done enough damage, with the Stuttgart fans seeing an all-too familiar sight at half-time with their team seemingly beaten.
However, Armin Veh's men refused to throw in the towel and goals from Timo Werner, Florian Klein and Martin Harnik saw them come back to claim a point at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Freiburg are still waiting for their first Bundesliga win of the season after they fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to high-flying Wolfsburg.
An early Daniel Caligiuri goal took the wind from Freiburg's sails and his second goal of the game in the 66th minute left Christian Streich's men staring their third defeat of the season in the face.
Sebastian Kerk grabbed a consolation for the hosts in time added on, but it was too little too late as they remained third from bottom with just five points from eight matches.
Mainz extended their unbeaten run to a club-record eight games with a 2-1 win over Augsburg at the Coface Arena.
Two goals in three first-half minutes from Jonas Hofmann and Jairo were enough to break down the Bavarians and send Kasper Hjulmand's men up to third without a single defeat in the Bundesliga all season.
Tobias Werner scored Augsburg's consolation, but they were unable to find a second goal and returned to Bavaria empty-handed.
Roberto Di Matteo's tenure as Schalke manager got off to the perfect start as the Royal Blues recorded a 2-0 victory over Hertha Berlin at Veltins-Arena.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar gave Schalke the lead on 19 minutes before Julian Draxler made sure of the points with a 65th-minute strike.
