Luca Toni hat-trick fires Bayern Munich back to three-point lead

BERLIN – Luca Toni bagged his first Bundesliga hat-trick to fire Bayern Munich back into a three-point lead at the top of the German league as his second-half strikes gave them a 3-0 win at Hanover on Sunday.

The 30-year-old overtook Borussia Dortmund’s Mladen Petric to return to the top of the Bundesliga scoring chart with 13 goals as the Italian World Cup winner’s treble killed off Hanover’s challenge. Toni has scored 22 goals in all competitions for Bayern this season since his 11 million euros (16 million US dollars) switch from Italy’s Fiorentina last summer and all of his second-half goals were well taken.”Toni is a quality forward who works tirelessly in front of goal and showed why he is a World Cup winner,” said Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld after the final whistle.The Italian began his scoring spree with a superb turn on the volley after a header from Dutch hardman Mark van Bommel on 58 minutes and then stabbed home a pass to make it two on 64 minutes before he lobbed the goalkeeper on 82 minutes.The win puts Bayern on 43 points – three clear of second-placed Werder Bremen – and for Hitzfeld there was the bonus of a good performance from Germany international Bastian Schweinsteiger.Hamburg went back to third in the table after their 3-0 win at home to VfL Bochum with Czech midfielder David Jarolim scoring two second-half goals.On Saturday, Bremen sealed a 2-0 win over strugglers Nuremberg after striker Markus Rosenberg scored on the half hour before Croatian forward Ivan Klasnic struck with an 82nd minute header.After sacking their coach Hans Meyer at the start of the week, ten-man Nuremberg failed to make an impact as Russian striker Ivan Saenko was sent off in the 20th minute.There was drama at bottom side Duisburg as Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger scored in the 92nd minute to seal a 3-2 Stuttgart win and deny the hosts their first success in five games.Hansa Rostock had former Germany midfielder Christian Rahn to thank as his 76th minute header gave his side three precious points at home to Eintracht Frankfurt and the win takes them up to 14th.And Hertha Berlin picked up three points as Brazilian striker Raffael struck in the 93rd minute to light up a dull tie at Olympic Stadium in Germany’s capital.There was a battle royal at Karlsruhe as they fought back from 2-0 down against Bayer Leverkusen to share the spoils in a 2-2 draw.Energie Cottbus’ most famous fan – German chancellor Angela Merkel – was in the stands in the former East German city to see her side lose 2-0 at home to Borussia Dortmund after she was presented as an honorary fan before kick-off.On Friday, Schalke 04 slid to fourth when they suffered their first defeat in seven games as Brazilian striker Grafite scored two late goals to give Wolfsburg a 2-1 away win.Nampa-AFPToni has scored 22 goals in all competitions for Bayern this season since his 11 million euros (16 million US dollars) switch from Italy’s Fiorentina last summer and all of his second-half goals were well taken.”Toni is a quality forward who works tirelessly in front of goal and showed why he is a World Cup winner,” said Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld after the final whistle.The Italian began his scoring spree with a superb turn on the volley after a header from Dutch hardman Mark van Bommel on 58 minutes and then stabbed home a pass to make it two on 64 minutes before he lobbed the goalkeeper on 82 minutes.The win puts Bayern on 43 points – three clear of second-placed Werder Bremen – and for Hitzfeld there was the bonus of a good performance from Germany international Bastian Schweinsteiger.Hamburg went back to third in the table after their 3-0 win at home to VfL Bochum with Czech midfielder David Jarolim scoring two second-half goals.On Saturday, Bremen sealed a 2-0 win over strugglers Nuremberg after striker Markus Rosenberg scored on the half hour before Croatian forward Ivan Klasnic struck with an 82nd minute header.After sacking their coach Hans Meyer at the start of the week, ten-man Nuremberg failed to make an impact as Russian striker Ivan Saenko was sent off in the 20th minute.There was drama at bottom side Duisburg as Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger scored in the 92nd minute to seal a 3-2 Stuttgart win and deny the hosts their first success in five games.Hansa Rostock had former Germany midfielder Christian Rahn to thank as his 76th minute header gave his side three precious points at home to Eintracht Frankfurt and the win takes them up to 14th.And Hertha Berlin picked up three points as Brazilian striker Raffael struck in the 93rd minute to light up a dull tie at Olympic Stadium in Germany’s capital.There was a battle royal at Karlsruhe as they fought back from 2-0 down against Bayer Leverkusen to share the spoils in a 2-2 draw.Energie Cottbus’ most famous fan – German chancellor Angela Merkel – was in the stands in the former East German city to see her side lose 2-0 at home to Borussia Dortmund after she was presented as an honorary fan before kick-off.On Friday, Schalke 04 slid to fourth when they suffered their first defeat in seven games as Brazilian striker Grafite scored two late goals to give Wolfsburg a 2-1 away win.Nampa-AFP

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