Bundesliga wrap: Hamburg hit Cologne for six

Hamburg won their first Bundesliga match in four games with a 6-2 thrashing of Cologne on Saturday.

A first-half hat-trick to Mladen Petric set up the comprehensive victory for the hosts at Imtech Arena, with Anis Ben-Hatira also finding the back of the net to put Hamburg four goals to the good at the break.

Cologne’s Mato Jajalo pulled a goal back for the visitors in the 50th minute, but two minutes later, Gojko Kacar reinstated Hamburg’s four-goal advantage.

Ze Roberto converted from the penalty spot to put Hamburg further ahead, before Lukas Podolski added a consolation goal in the 62nd minute for the visiting side.

Elsewhere, Bayern Munich consolidated fourth spot in the league with a late 2-1 win over Freiburg at the badenova Stadion.

Louis van Gaal’s side took the lead in the ninth minute when Franck Ribery’s free-kick found the head of Mario Gomez, who flicked the ball past Freiburg goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.

Papiss Demba Cisse missed an ideal chance to equalise, when his tame penalty in the 14th minute was saved by Thomas Kraft.

But the Bundesliga’s second top scorer made up for his mistake when he equalised three minutes later for the hosts.

But they would be denied late when Ribery found the winner in the 88th minute to leave Bayern two points behind third-placed Hannover.

They held onto their gap ahead of Bayern with a 2-0 win over Hoffenheim at the AWD Arena, with Didier Ya Konan and Mohamed Abdellaoue scoring the goals on either side of half time.

Werder Bremen gave their survival hopes a significant boost with a 3-1 away win at Nuremburg, while Eintracht Frankfurt moved three points clear of the drop when they beat fellow strugglers St Pauli 2-1 courtesy of Theofanis Gekas brace.