Magath laments Hanover's defensive tactics

Bayern Munich suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Hanover 96 on Wednesday night, a result that left the faltering Bundesliga champions six points behind leaders Werder Bremen.

Hanover, who went into the match in last place, took the lead at the end of the first half when a mistake from Martin Demichelis presented Szabolcs Huszti with a soft goal.

Bayern, missing key players such as Lucio, Owen Hargreaves and Lukas Podolski, created little and were roundly jeered by their own fans as they suffered a fourth league defeat of the season and their first at home.

"You could see once again tonight that we have problems when we come up against very defensive sides," Bayern coach Felix Magath told reporters.

"We did too little in the first half. We didn't put enough pressure on them. We did more in the second half, tried a lot more, but we didn't create many clear chances then either."

With 11 games played, Werder lead the standings with 23 points following their 2-1 win at Nuremberg on Tuesday.

VfB Stuttgart, who won 2-0 at home to Hamburg SV on Tuesday, are second on 21 points. Schalke moved up to third on 20 points after winning 2-0 away to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Wednesday.

Bayern, double winners in each of the past two seasons, have 17 points and lie in fifth place.

Hanover's victory moved them up to 15th place with 10 points and pushed Hamburg SV into the relegation zone.

Bayern produced barely a moment of inspiration against a limited Hanover side, who accepted the gift of a goal at the end of the opening half and then held on quite comfortably.

Bayern looked all too casual in the first half, when they regularly gave the ball away. One such mistake ended up costing them the match.

Demichelis, picking up the ball out near Bayern's left-hand touchline two minutes before the break, gave possession up to Jiri Stajner.

The Czech Republic forward marched unchallenged into the penalty area and cut back for Hungarian Huszti to tap in.

Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel offered the crowd some hope of an equaliser with a couple of good passes forward for his countryman Roy Makaay but his finishing let him down.

"If I'd been in the crowd I would have booed as well," Van Bommel told Arena TV.