Created on 17-04-2010 at 00:00 AM
Bayern temporarily lost the lead in the Bundesliga to Schalke on Saturday afternoon, but effortlessly regained it in the evening with a crushing victory over outclassed strugglers Hannover. The visitors had previously lost 17 of their 20 top flight visits to Munich and never remotely looked like improving on that dismal record, but the Bavarians were in sparkling form ahead of the Champions League semi-final first leg meeting with Lyon.
The 69,000 capacity crowd at the Allianz Arena saw Ivica Olic, Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller hand FCB a comfortable and fully merited cushion after a wholly one-sided first half. Olic and Robben struck twice in a minute early in the second period, and Müller made it three Munich men with a brace apiece when he added the sixth on the hour.
The league leaders toyed with their opponents at times but ultimately took pity with twenty minutes to go, although the outstanding Robben could not resist completing his hat-trick and a thumping win for his side in stoppage-time.
The victory, Bayern's biggest-ever at the Allianz Arena in the 84th league match at the stadium, takes FCB onto 63 points from 31 matches, maintaining their two-point lead over Schalke with three games to go. Bremen and Leverkusen in third and fourth are nine points off the lead and out of the title race.