Hamburg overpower struggling Stuttgart

Croatian striker Ivica Olic scored a first-half hat-trick to lead Hamburg SV to a 4-1 win at home to struggling Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart yesterday.

Olic struck after seven, 23 and 34 minutes as Stuttgart's miserable start to their title defence hit a new low.

Franck Ribery scored one and set up the other as leaders Bayern Munich came from behind to win 2-1 at VfL Bochum while Werder Bremen climbed to second thanks to a 3-2 home victory over Hertha Berlin.

With 10 games played Bayern, the only unbeaten side, lead the table with 26 points followed by Werder and Hamburg on 20.

Karlsruhe, who have 18 points, can reclaim second spot if they win at home to Arminia Bielefeld today.

Schalke 04, fifth on 17 points, drew 1-1 at Hansa Rostock. Hamburg scythed through the Stuttgart defence time and again, despite the absence of injured captain Rafael van der Vaart, to leave the champions 13th with 10 points.

Mohamed Zidan set up the opener when he slid through a pass for Olic to score with a perfect first-time finish across the keeper and in at the far post.

The second came as the Stuttgart defence went to sleep again. Guy Demel marched forward on the right and shot across the face of the area for Olic to score easily. The third was a similar story. This time it was David Jarolim who supplied the cross for the unmarked Olic.

Stuttgart had Pavel Pardo sent off at the end of the first half for a kick at Jarolim.

Hamburg made it 4-0 with a header from Joris Mathijsen before Serdar Tasci grabbed a consolation in the 73rd minute.

Bayern had a trickier than expected test against Bochum after falling behind to a cracking goal in the 11th minute.

Dennis Grote, receiving a pass from Marcel Maltritz, waltzed through the defence and scored with a wickedly swerving shot that gave stand-in keeper Michael Rensing no chance.

Miroslav Klose set up Ribery for a Bayern equaliser that was equally good. Klose tricked his way into the area and crossed low for the French international to score with a deft back-heel that went in off the keeper.

Bayern had to wait until 10 minutes from time to seal the points through a deflected shot from Bastian Schweinsteiger after Ribery had picked him out with a cross from the right.