Italian striker Luca Toni maintained his goal-a-game form as Bayern Munich made Bundesliga history to keep their 100 percent record alive with a 3-0 home victory over Hanover on Saturday.
Bayern now have a perfect 10 goal difference and are yet to concede a goal this season after their opening three wins over Hansa Rostock (3-0), Werder Bremen (4-0) and now Hanover (3-0) leave them top of the table.
The Munich club have made the best-ever start by a Bundesliga side after three games as World Cup winner Toni put Bayern 1-0 up at the break before midfielders Mark Van Bommmel and Hamit Altintop provided second-half goals.
PHOTO: AFP
But Bayern's experienced boss Ottmar Hitzfeld, who has twice coached Champions League winning teams, will be keeping his side's feet on the ground as they travel to Hamburg and face Schalke at home in the next two weeks.
"We played very well, but there are still some parts of our game we have to improve," Hitzfeld said.
"We haven't achieved anything yet, we are clear favorites for the Bundesliga title, but there is a long way to go and we have big games ahead with Hamburg and Schalke coming up," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
Bastian Schweinsteiger put a polished pass through the Hanover defense for Toni to bag his third goal in three games following his move from Fiorentina.
The 30-year-old pulled his quad muscle scoring the 28th-minute goal and was replaced by 19-year-old striker Sandro Wagner, Bayern's only fit striker with Jan Schlaudraff, Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose all on the injured list.
Hanover were reduced to ten-men on the stroke of half-time as Albanian midfielder Altin Lala clattered Bayern's Franck Ribery to earn a yellow and then pole-axed Ze Roberto moments later to earn his second yellow and the following red.
PHOTO: AFP
In the second-half, Bayern dominated their guests until Schweinsteiger's pass saw Dutch hardman Van Bommel net in the 67th minute to make the result safe, before Altintop slotted home with four minutes left.
In his first game back from injury, German striker Mario Gomez scored a first-half goal to give Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart a much-needed 1-0 win over newly-promoted Duisburg as the champs bounced back from their shock defeat at Hertha Berlin.
Werder Bremen recovered from their 4-0 hammering against Bayern the week before as striker Martin Harnik netted in the 69th minute in their 1-0 win over Nuremberg.
Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Bernd Schneider was instrumental in his side's 3-0 win over last season's second division champions Karlsruhe to leave his side in sixth place.
Schneider's free-kick was deflected into the net by Karlsruhe defender Maik Franz for the first goal, before Manuel Friedrich made it 2-0 and then Greek striker Theofanis Gekas benefitted from a Schneider pass as it finished 3-0.
Borussia Dortmund enjoyed a 3-0 win over Energie Cottbus, while Armenia Bielefeld had few problems in their 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin which puts them second in the table.
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