Germany: Hoffenheim stays atop with win over Bielefeld

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Vedad Ibisevic scored his 17th goal of the season Saturday to help Bundesliga leader Hoffenheim beat Arminia Bielefeld 3-0 for its eighth win in nine games.

Ibisevic gave his team the lead in the fifth minute, with Carlos Eduardo and Francisco Copado adding a goal apiece as Hoffenheim improved to 34 points after 15 rounds. The Bundesliga newcomer remained three points ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich, which beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 on goals by Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose.

Juergen Klinsmann's Bayern, which hosts Hoffenheim on Friday, pulled ahead in the 59th minute as Ze Roberto sent a high cross into the box where Toni headed it into the net.

Klose took a fine pass from Franck Ribery in the 82nd for the second goal from just inside the area.

Leverkusen had nearly grabbed the lead in the 16th, but Henrique's header hit the crossbar.

In Hoffenheim, Ibisevic added to his league-leading goal tally with a falling volley, while Eduardo added the second in the 11th by dribbling through the Bielefeld defense before striking a shot inside the far right post.

Ralf Rangnick's Hoffenheim kept creating chances and put the game beyond doubt on Copado's penalty in the 89th.

Claudio Pizarro scored a hat trick as Werder Bremen thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-0 to reach 23 points in seventh place -- currently three points from the last UEFA Cup spot for next year.

Energie Cottbus took advantage of the worst defense in the league in grabbing a 3-1 victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach to jump out of last place and leave the relegation zone.

Moenchengladbach's American midfielder Michael Bradley missed a great chance in the second minute and then scored an own-goal to give Cottbus the lead. Cottbus, which had only scored eight goals in the first 14 games, made it 2-0 through Dennis Sorensen.

Steve Gohouri pulled a goal back but Emil Jula decided the game for Cottbus in the 85th minute.

The new last-placed team is Karlsruher, which fell behind 3-0 and fell short in its rally to lose 3-2 at Hannover to remain on 10 points. Mike Hanke scored two goals for Hannover.

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