Four-goal Bayern vault into top five

Bayern Munich cruised to a 4-1 victory at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, leaping into the top five as they target a strong finish to the first half of the Bundesliga season.

During the week, Bayern’s bosses had demanded a minumum 10 points from the final four matches before the winter break, and Louis van Gaal’s men gained the first three in extending their undefeated streak to seven matches.

The reigning Bundesliga champions moved onto 23 points – five points from the Champions League qualification spot of third place and 11 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk’s goal in the 29th minute for Bayern was swiftly cancelled out by Theofanis Gekas. But Thomas Mueller scored in the 59th minute and Mario Gomez made it 3-1 two minutes later before Tymoshchuk doubled his goal tally in the 88th minute.

Dortmund have a chance to regain their seven-point lead over Mainz later Saturday when they host tailenders Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Mainz pulled to within four points of Dortmund with a convincing 3-0 victory at home over Nuremberg on Friday night to consolidate second place.

Bayer Leverkusen lost ground on Mainz, whom they trail by four points after a 2-2 draw Saturday at Hoffenheim, who equalised four minutes into stoppage time with a penalty by Gylfi Thor Sigurdsson.

Leverkusen went 2-0 up after just 10 minutes with goals by Sidney Sam in the eighth minute and a penalty by Arturo Vidal (10th). But Sejad Salihovic pulled a goal back in the 38th minute for Hoffenheim and Iceland international Sigurdsson blasted home the penalty to give Hoffenheim 22 points for sixth place.

Hannover are fourth with 25 points after a 3-0 victory at home over Freiburg with Jan Schlaudraff, Didier Ya Konen and Mike Hanke on target.

Hamburg are seventh, one point behind Hoffenheim, after a 4-2 victory at home over 10-man Stuttgart.

Hamburg went ahead after three minutes through Piotr Trochowski but Ciprian Marica equalised in the ninth minute only to get his marching orders with a red card after 16 minutes.

After Jonathan Pitroipa and Mladen Petric pushed the lead to 3-1, Christian Gentner pulled a goal back before Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the hosts’ fourth.

In Munich, Frankfurt nearly went ahead after 13 minutes after Bayern centre back Daniel van Buyten let a ball from Frankfurt keeper Oka Nikolov go past him to Gekas, who got past Bayern keeper Hans Joerg Butt but watched Breno clear his attempt at the line.

Bayern grabbed the lead in the 29th minute with a superb goal by Tymoshchuk, who reminded fans of injured Dutch star Arjen Robben by turning in from the right side and blasting a left-foot shot inside the far left post.

Van Buyten’s next defensive blunder led to the equalizer for Frankfurt in the 33rd minute as the Belgian defender jumped too early at a Marcel Heller cross, which landed at Gekas. The Greek international’s shot struck the post but the ball landed back with Gekas, who slotted home to make it 1-1.

Gomez missed a chance to give Bayern the lead two minutes after the re-start, hitting the post.

But Bayern regained the lead in the 59th minute as Nikolov could not hold onto Bastian Schweinsteiger’s long shot and Mueller grabbed the loose ball and hit home.

Nikolov again could only block away a shot – this time by Franck Ribery – two minutes later with Gomez striking home the rebound for a 3-1 lead.

And Tymoshchuk poked home his second goal in the 88th minute after a pass by Ribery.

Closer to the bottom of the table, Schalke’s struggles continued with a 5-0 loss at Kaiserslautern with Srdjan Lakic scoring two goals.

Schalke remained on 13 points for 15th place while Kaiserslautern jumped to 17 points for 11th place.

On Sunday, disappointing sides Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg, both on 15 points, will seek to move up the table with matches against St. Pauli and at Cologne.