Leverkusen routs Cologne
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Leverkusen, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Karim Bellarabi and Josip Drmic each scored a pair of goals on Saturday as Bayer Leverkusen rolled to a 5-1 drubbing of FC Cologne at the BayArena.
Coming off a 1-0 defeat to French side Monaco in the Champions League in midweek, Leverkusen was hoping for a better outcome on home soil, but things started poorly as Matthias Lehmann converted a penalty in the fourth minute to give Cologne the early lead.
Despite falling behind early, the hosts responded with an equalizer in the 26th minute from Bellarabi and Hakan Calhanoglu netted just past the hour mark to give Leverkusen the lead.
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Drmic then got into the scoring act in the 79th and 88th minutes to widen the margin to 4-1, and Bellarabi completed his double in stoppage time to wrap up all three points in style for Leverkusen, which improved to 23 points from 13 matches, good for third place in the Bundesligsa.
Cologne, meanwhile, remains in 12th place with 15 points from 13 matches played.
Elsewhere in the German top flight on Saturday, Halil Altintop, Raul Marcelo Bobadilla and Paul Verhaegh all found the back of the net as Augsburg claimed an important three points with a 3-1 victory over Hamburg at the SGL Arena.
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League leaders Bayern Munich won their fourth straight game in league play on Saturday with a 1-0 result over Hertha Berlin at the Olympic Stadium courtesy of a 27th-minute strike from Arjen Robben.
The win sees the Bavarians improve to 33 points from 13 matches, 10 clear of second-place Wolfsburg.
Klaas Jan Huntelaar buried a hat trick as Schalke earned a comfortable 4-1 win over Mainz at the Veltins Arena. Huntelaar opened the scoring after nine minutes and doubled the advantage in the 25th minute of play.
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Shinji Okazaki pulled one back for Mainz in the 44th minute, but Tranquillo Barnetta netted in the 54th minute and Huntelaar finished his treble just past the hour mark as Schalke eased to all three points to rise to sixth place on 20 points.
Zlatko Junuzovic, Davie Selke, Fin Bartels, and Levent Aycicek all hit the back of the net as Werder Bremen rolled to a 4-0 thrashing of Paderborn at the Weserstadion.
Saturday's final Bundesliga fixture saw Hoffenheim claimed a wild 4-3 win over Hannover at the Rhein-Neckar Arena as Niklas Suele's 63rd-minute goal held up as the winner for Hoffenheim.