Bundesliga wrap: High five for Bayern, Leverkusen held to draw

Mario Gomez scored a hat-trick as Bayern Munich beat Stuttgart 5-3 in the Bundesliga on Sunday, while Bayer Leverkusen drew with Freiburg.

Stuttgart, struggling at 17th place in the table, found themselves three goals down before the half-time whistle in their first match under new coach Bruno Labbadia.

Germany striker Gomez opened the scoring against his former club in the 31st minute, before his international colleague Thomas Muller made it two with a close-range finish just five minutes later.

France winger Franck Ribery weighed in with the third two minutes before half-time.

Stuttgart did return fire in the second half, with Austria’s Martin Harnik pulling a goal back in the 48th minute.

Gomez dashed any faint hopes of a comeback with a brace in the space of two minutes to complete his hat-trick.

Harnik scored a second goal just after the hour mark, before Christian Gentner added some respectability to the scoreline, making it 5-3 in the 69th minute.

Defending champions Bayern climb to fifth in the table, but are still 14 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Stuttgart will remain second bottom during the winter break, three points behind third-bottom Cologne and five points adrift of safety.

Earlier, a second-half strike from Patrick Helmes helped Bayer Leverkusen secure a 2-2 draw at home to Freiburg.

The hosts took the lead courtesy of an Arturo Vidal penalty just 16 minutes in after Tranquillo Barnetta was fouled in the box by Julian Schuster.

Jan Rosenthal levelled for Freiburg seven minutes later and the visitors went ahead in the 65th minute through Stefan Reisinger.

Their lead proved short-lived, with a Helmes effort deflecting off Freiburg goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and into the net for equaliser with 15 minutes to go.

Leverkusen are third, level with second-place Mainz 05, and 10 points behind leaders Dortmund, while Freiburg are sixth.

The Bundesliga season resumes on January 14.