Berlin, Nov 6: Claudio Pizarro scored a hat trick as Werder Bremen came from behind to defeat Cologne 3-2 in the Bundesliga on Saturday, and defending champion Borussia Dortmund routed Wolfsburg 5-1.
Christian Clemens and Lukas Podolski put Cologne 2-0 up at the break. Pizarro pulled one back after a goalmouth scramble in the 49th, equalized with a penalty five minutes later—after Cologne had a player sent off—and sealed the win in the 86th.
Dortmund, Bremen and Borussia Moenchengladbach, which won 2-1 at Hertha Berlin, are all two points behind leader Bayern Munich. Bayern visits relegation-threatened Augsburg on Sunday.
Also Saturday, Freiburg won at Nuremberg 2-1 and Hoffenheim drew with Kaiserslautern 1-1.
Bayer Leverkusen hosted Hamburger SV later.
Bremen got off to a bad start when Clemens headed Podolski's cross beyond Tim Wiese in the third minute, and the midfielder returned the favor for Podolski to finish a fine counterattack in the 45th.
Pizarro had been involved in 11 of Werder's previous 12 goals, and the Peru striker made his mark again early in the second half when Cologne failed to clear the ball.
Henrique Sereno was unlucky to be sent off in the 53rd for bringing down Markus Rosenberg, and Pizarro sent Michael Rensing the wrong way from the resultant penalty.
The 33-year-old claimed his 11th goal of the season—and the win—when he met Rosenberg's header to finish from close range.
“I'm scoring everything at the moment. It's unbelievable,” Pizarro said. “We always play like that. We go behind and then turn the game around.”
Mario Goetze scored twice for Dortmund, opening the scoring in the 12th minute after playing a one-two with Shinji Kagawa.
Sven Bender and Robert Lewandowski combined to set up Kagawa for Dortmund's deserved second before the interval.
Alexander Hleb pulled one back in the 59th, but Bender killed off any hopes of a comeback when he scored two minutes later.
Lewandowski put the issue beyond doubt in the 66th, when Kagawa split the defense with a terrific through ball, and Goetze sprung the offside trap to score his second in the 78th.
Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said Neven Subotic, who went off early in the second half, suffered a facial fracture and needs an operation, ruling the defender out of action for around six weeks.
Moenchengladbach coach Lucien Favre made his first return to former club Hertha, and two players he brought to the German capital combined to score for Berlin in the 18th, when Raffael set up Adrian Ramos to fire beyond Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Marco Reus equalized with the visitors' first chance in the 33rd, and scored the winner in the 55th, when he scored on the rebound after Thomas Kraft saved Juan Arango's initial effort.
Raffael almost equalized for Berlin in the 72nd, only to see his 16-meter (yard) shot to rattle the crossbar.
Papiss Demba Cisse sealed Freiburg's win when he scored a penalty in injury time.
Tomas Pekhart scored for Nuremberg in the 32nd, but Jan Rosenthal capitalized on a defensive mix-up to equalize two minutes later.
Germany coach Joachim Loew was joined by United States coach Juergen Klinsmann at Sinsheim, where Vedad Ibisevic put Hoffenheim ahead against the run of play in the 33rd.
Kaiserslautern's Dorge Rostand Kouemaha equalized with the goal of the day in the 73rd, when Richard Sukuta-Pasu chested Christian Tiffert's cross for the Cameroon striker to fire in a volley from 20 meters (yards).
