Bremen hand out six-goal hammering
 |  Ailton beat the offside trap to score Bremen's fourth goal |
BREMEN, Germany -- Werder Bremen maintained their six point lead at the top of the German Bundesliga with a 6-0 hammering of Hamburg, while nearest challengers Bayern Munich came from a goal down to win 2-1 at bottom club Cologne.
Bremen's marksmen were Sergej Barbarez (og), Valerian Ismael, Ivan Klasnic, Ailton, and subs Nelson Valdez and Viktor Skripnik (pen). Next week they clash with Bayern in Munich.
Defeat for Cologne meant that they will be relegated.
Barbarez's own goal after 17 minutes was followed by a free kick five minutes later from Ismael and a sweet left-foot effort from Klasnic made it 3-0 to Bremen at the break.
Brazilian Ailton broke the Hamburg offside trap to make it 4-0 three minutes into the second half and Paraguayan Valdez scored the fifth from the narrowest of angles ten minutes from time.
Skripnik, who has been at Bremen for 17 years, was given the chance to notch the sixth from the penalty spot on 85 minutes, after Bastian Reinhardt had handled.
Thomas Schaaf's side now have 71 points with three games remaining, six clear of defending champions Bayern and 11 clear of third-placed Stuttgart, who play Schalke 04 Sunday.
Young striking talent Lukas Podolski's seventh goal of the season gave Cologne an early lead over Bayern but Claudio Pizarro leveled after 40 minutes, slotting home from two meters after Cologne keeper Stefan Wessels failed to hold Michael Ballack's long-range shot.
Just as it appeared that Ottmar Hitzfeld's side would fall further behind Bremen in the title race, substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger made it 2-1 with an effort from 18 meters that took a wicked a deflection off Cologne's Lukas Sinkiewicz.
