Naldo treble leads Werder to easy 6-2 win

Brazilian defender Naldo scored a hat-trick to see Bundesliga leaders Werder Bremen to a rousing 6-2 victory away to Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday.

Stuttgart stayed on the title trail by edging out VfL Bochum 1-0 with a late Marco Streller goal, while Bayern Munich also kept within striking distance thanks to a nervy 2-1 victory over stubborn Energie Cottbus.

With 16 games played, and just one more round of matches before the Bundesliga's six-week mid-season break, Werder lead the standings with 33 points.

Stuttgart climb to second on 31, while champions Bayern, in fourth, join third-placed Schalke 04 on the 30-point mark.

Schalke can climb back level with Werder on 33 points if they win today's Ruhr Valley derby at home to Borussia Dortmund.

Werder Bremen, who bowed out of the Champions League after a 2-0 defeat at Barcelona on Tuesday, were clearly in no mood for mourning and moved ahead when Naldo slid in a shot from an Ivan Klasnic pass in the third minute.

A mistake from goalkeeper Tim Wiese gave Frankfurt's Marco Russ an easy equaliser. Werder swept back on the attack and moved ahead in the 11th minute when Daniel Jensen took the ball from the toes of Diego and squeezed in a shot from six metres.

Naldo got his second just past the half-hour mark with a header from a Torsten Frings free-kick and the centre-back struck with a free-kick of his own three minutes after the break.

The game drifted for a long time before a goal from Sotiris Kyrgiakos got one back for Frankfurt.

That merely sparked a brutal response from Werder, who added further strikes from Jurica Vranjes and Diego in the last four minutes.

Bayern found it tougher going against Cottbus at the Allianz Arena but they kept plugging away and were rewarded when Bastian Schwein-steiger let fly from 30 metres just before the break.

Goalkeeper Tomislav Piplica attempted to punch clear but instead the ball hit him in the face and flew into the net.

Steffen Baumgart was left unmarked to head in an equaliser in the 52nd minute but Daniel van Buyten headed in a Schweinsteiger free-kick two minutes later to get Bayern back on track.

Oliver Kahn safeguarded victory for Bayern when he made a brilliant save from a deflected Vlad Munteanu shot with nine minutes to go.