Hitzfeld's delight as Ribery-inspired Bayern blitz Bremen
BERLIN (AFP) - Bayern Munich boss Ottmar Hitzfeld was full of praise for France international Franck Ribery after the midfielder put in a five-star performance in Saturday's 4-0 humbling of Werder Bremen at the Weser Stadium.
Ribery opened the scoring and bossed Bayern's midfield as the German giants ran riot against a Bremen side depleted by injuries to key midfielders Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski.
Having finished third in last season's Bundesliga, Bremen had no reply to Bayern's newly-recruited stars as Ribery converted a 31st minute penalty and Italian striker Luca Toni found the back of the net after the break.
Super sub Hamit Altintop then struck with 10 minutes remaining before fellow replacement Andreas Ottl sealed the win which means Bayern top the league and have now scored seven goals without reply from their first two games.
In his first game back at his former club, Bayern striker Miroslav Klose was hacked down after just three minutes and was taken off at half-time as Hitzfeld rearranged his side with devastating results.
"There wasn't much between the sides at the break, but after the loss of Miroslav Klose we had to change our attacking formations considerably," said Hitzfeld.
"That was when Ribery really came into his own and made it hard for Bremen to defend against our attacks.
"But one shouldn't forget that Bremen have a few injury problems and we had a fair bit of luck."
After seeing his depleted side humbled, Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf took the defeat on the chin.
"We just gave Bayern too much space after the break and invited them to attack us," he said.
"So we can hardly complain when we are punished for it, it was a hard lesson to learn, but we will be working hard next week to fix the problems."
The guests took the lead when Ribery calmly slotted home his penalty after Toni was brought down on the edge of the penalty area.
The 24-year-old Ribery waited for Bremen goalkeeper Tim Weise to dive to his right before slotting his shot exactly where Weise had been.
Klose stayed in the dressing room after half-time, to be replaced by Altintop, and the Turkish international broke through the defence to supply a neat pass to Toni and the World Cup winner expertly slotted home on 51 minutes.
Altintop then added to Bremen's misery on 79 minutes before fellow substitute Ottl hit a superb shot which gave Wiese no chance to complete the rout.
Defending Bundesliga champions VfB Stuttgart suffered a surprise 3-1 defeat at Hertha Berlin.
The visitors' German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger smashed a thunderbolt shot past Hertha's goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny at Berlin's Olympic Stadium on 15 minutes.
But Berlin came back as first midfielder Sofian Chahed slotted a penalty and then defender Malik Fathi headed home before Nigerian striker Solomon Okoronkwo hit an 81st minute goal to seal the win.
Last season's runners-up Schalke 04 enjoyed a 4-1 win at home to bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund.
First defender Marcelo Bordon scored with a header on 11 minutes before defender Christian Pander slotted home a 31st minute free-kick.
A header from German international striker Gerald Asamoah on 59 minutes made it 3-0 before Dortmund pulled a goal back only for striker Kevin Kuranyi to score in the 78th minute to complete the guests' misery.
After their 3-0 defeat at Bayern last weekend, Hansa Rostock's bad start to the season continued as they were beaten 2-1 at Nuremberg.
VfL Wolfsburg enjoyed a 3-1 win at Duisburg, while Arminia Bielefeld were held 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt.
On Friday night, Hanover had to come from behind to beat Karlsruhe and on Sunday Bayer Leverkusen travel to Hamburg and VfL Bochum are at Energie Cottbus.