BERLIN, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Miroslav Klose scored a hat-trick in the final half hour to lead Bayern Munich to a 5-0 home win over bottom-of-the-table Energie Cottbus on Wednesday and raise his tally to eight goals in his six Bundesliga games.
Martin Demichelis and Luca Toni also scored in the last half
hour for Bayern, who moved three points clear at the top of the
table with 17 points from seven games. Bayer Leverkusen moved
into second place after beating Nuremberg 2-1 away.
Averaging three goals per match, the new-look Bayern lead
the way in the Bundesliga scoring stakes with 21 goals and at
this pace could surpass their 2006/07 total of 55 goals by the
mid-season Christmas break.
Klose broke a tense stalemate in the 59th minute, pouncing
on a blunder by Cottbus goalkeeper Tomislav Piplica. Martin
Demichelis doubled the lead four minutes later before Toni got
his fifth goal of the season in the 69th minute.
Klose, the league's top scorer, claimed his second in the
75th minute, chesting down a cross from 17-year-old prodigy Toni
Kroos and beating Piplica with a fine shot into the left corner.
Klose, who came from Werder Bremen in the close season,
completed the scoring one minute from time, heading in another
fine cross from Kroos, in a match played under a steady drizzle
and watched by a crowd of 69,000.
"I don't know what happened," Klose told Premiere
television. "At halftime the coach said we had to be patient. We
had chances in the first half but didn't use them. In the second
half we had a good run. Everyone plays better then."
The Germany striker leads the scoring table with eight
goals; Toni is joiny second with five. But Klose, who clearly
plays well with the Italy striker and new arrival, said he did
not want to discuss their understanding on the pitch.
"Let's not talk too much about it," Klose said. "Otherwise
it'll be ruined."
But Klose was happy to talk about Kroos, who played the
final 28 minutes in his debut for Bayern. The young midfielder
was recently voted Germany's best under-20 player.
"He's a world-class player, even though he's still so
young," said Klose. "He's a great talent."
