Frankfurt, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Thomas Muller produced at hat trick at the Commerzbank Arena on Saturday to help Bayern Munich open up a seven- point lead at the top of the Bundesliga table with a 4-0 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Germany international put the visitors in front after 22 minutes when he converted a chance from very close range with his knee.
Bayern rode the narrow lead into the second half with Muller eventually adding two goals in the span of three minutes to put the result beyond any doubt.
Muller doubled the advantage in the 64th minute from a well-worked exchange that saw Philipp Lahm lift a superb ball into the path of Franck Ribery. The Frenchman then found Muller, who converted the chance with his right foot with ease.
The hat trick was complete shortly after as Muller latched on to a through ball from Mario Gotze and slid a shot past the on-rushing Felix Wiedwald.
Xherdan Shaqiri tacked on a fourth goal in the 86th minute by redirecting a shot from Sebastian Rode into the back of the net.
The win lifts Bayern to 27 points through 11 matches, though second-place Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach can restore the four-point deficit with a wins over Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund, respectively, on Sunday.
Cologne left it late but managed to claim maximum points at the Rhein-Neckar Arena on Saturday by way of a 4-3 victory over Hoffenheim.
The hosts took the lead through Adam Szalai in the second minute but surrendered goals to Pawel Olkowski, Matthias Lehmann and Anthony Ujah to slip into a massive hole.
They managed to climb level before halftime thanks to Roberto Firmino's goals in the 39th and 45th minutes, but Cologne would go on to collect all three points with Olkowski netting the winner seven minutes from time.
Augsburg earned a 3-0 victory over Paderborn on Saturday with Tobias Werner's brace leading the way while Christian Gunter and Jonathan Schmid produced the goals in Freiburg's 2-0 defeat of Schalke.
Rounding out Saturday���s Bundesliga action, Bayer Leverkusen was held to a 0-0 home draw by Mainz while Werder Bremen scored in either half to earn a 2-0 victory over Stuttgart.
