Bayern crush Hamburg, Leipzig edge Cologne in German Bundesliga
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E-mail Xinhua, February 26, 2017
Robert Lewandowski's hat rick smoothed the way for Bayern to hammer Hamburg 8-0, and Leipzig reaped their second consecutive win after beating Cologne 3-1 in the 22nd round of Bundesliga on Saturday.
Front-runners Bayern showed no mercy with Hamburg as the German giants whitewashed the visitors with three first- and five second-half goals.
Hamburg worked out the first chance of the game, as Douglas Santos pulled just wide following a corner in the 13th minute. But the hosts who broke the deadlock with 17 minutes into the game after Arturo Vidal poked home Thomas Mueller's square pass.
Bayern needed another seven minutes to double the lead as Lewandowski converted a foul play penalty into the bottom right. The striker remained in the thick of things, as he headed on target twice, before he marked the 3-0 lead three minutes before the break.
Hamburg remained harmless and got punished after the restart when Lewandowski wrapped his hat rick and his 19th goal of the season from inside the box in the 54th minute.
Carlo Ancelotti's men kept it relentlessly going as David Alaba tapped in Mueller's assist to make it 5-0 on the scoreboards before substitute Kingsley Coman provided two goals in four minutes to extend the lead.
However, Bayern were not done with the scoring and rounded off the dominant performance with a goal from Arjen Robben, who finished off a solo run from inside the box with three minutes remaining.
With the result, Bayern Munich remain atop the standings with a five-point advantage whereas Hamburg slumped into the relegation zone.
Runner-up Leipzig remain close on Bayern's heels after overcoming Cologne 3-1 on home soil.
The "Bulls" secured a perfect start in front of home crowd as Emil Forsberg opened the scoring after Timo Werner headed a clearance into the path of the Swedish midfielder with five minutes played.
Things went from bad to worse for Cologne after Dominik Maroh cleared a low cross from Naby Keita into the wrong goal to double the lead for the hosts in the 34th minute.
After the break, Cologne piled on the pressure and pulled one back through Yuya Osako, who slotted home at the near post in the 53rd minute.
Leipzig remained unimpressed and destroyed all hopes of a comeback as Timo Werner restored the two-goal lead following a counter attack, just when the visitors were increasing the pressure.
Ralph Hasenhuettl's men remained in control of the proceedings and reaped their second consecutive win.
With the 15th win of the campaign, Leipzig stay on the second place, five points adrift of front-runners Bayern, while Cologne continue on the 7th position of the standings.
Elsewhere, third placed Borussia Dortmund see off Freiburg 3-0 owing to the second-half brace from Bundesliga top scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Leverkusen lost 2-0 to Mainz as the goals from Stefan Bell and Levin Oeztunali separated the two sides.
Augsburg came from behind to edge bottom dwelling Darmstadt 2-1 as Paul Verhaegh and Raul Bobadilla turned the tides, and Berlin sealed a 2-0 victory over ten-men Frankfurt.
The following fixtures will complete the 22nd round of Bundesliga on Sunday: Ingolstadt encounter Monchengladbach and Schalke host Hoffenheim. Enditem
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