Bundesliga: Cologne 4 Hannover 0

Lowly Cologne have dented Hannover’s Champions League hopes with a stunning 4-0 victory in Friday’s lone Bundesliga fixture.

Cologne, who were 11th on the table coming into their meeting at Rhein Energie Stadion, overran the visiting side and piled on three second-half goals, two to striker Milivoje Novakovic.

The Slovenian international has been enjoying a purple patch since February, scoring seven goals in six appearances for Cologne and also picking up the opener in his nation’s 2-1 friendly win over Albania.

Hannover, who could have risen to second on the table with three points, instead remain third on the table.

Their lead over fourth-placed Mainz could be reduced to a point if the latter can defeat Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. Cologne, meanwhile, rise to 10th.

The hosts had threatened early but needed until the 36th minute to claim their opening goal, and it came from a set piece after Hannover defender Karim Haggui felled Lukas Podolski just outside the area.

Portuguese midfielder Petit blasted his free kick through the wall and past a blind-sighted Ron-Robert Zieler, the Hannover goalkeeper reacting late and seeing the ball fizz by to his left.

Podolski was looking dangerous and brought up his 11th goal of the season on the hour, the German international brought into play by a nice through ball and rounding Zieler wide before threading a nice finish inside the far post.

Novakovic had his first 19 minutes later on Slawomir Peszko’s assist, the Pole taking advantage of a Hannover turnover deep in their half and squirting a neat cross across the goalmouth for an easy finish.

And there was still time for Novakovic to nab his brace, the Slovenian rising above Jan Schlaudraff to nod substitute Adil Chilhi’s cross beyond Zieler in the 89th minute.