The pre-match hype surrounded the return of Brazilians Lucio, Ze Roberto and German international Michael Ballack, stars of Bayer's run to the 2002 Champions League final, but all three had a miserable afternoon as Bayern collapsed at the BayArena. Two of Leverkusen's new stars, Brazilian Franca and Bulgarian international Dimitar Berbatov, stole the headlines with two goals apiece as Bayer stretched their unbeaten run to 14 matches and proved they are genuine title contenders.

"The team played like I wanted it to today," beamed Bayer manager Klaus Augenthaler.

"Franca and Berbatov were outstanding and I am delighted with their performances because they scored two goals apiece and tracked back too."

Aside from Lucio, Ailton was another Brazilian to have a bad day as he was sent off in Schalke 04's 2-0 loss against Hansa Rostock.

Last season's top goalscorer has yet to open his account in the 2004/05 campaign and his indifferent season continued as he picked up a red card on the chime of half-time following a fracas with Koakim Persson and Uwe Mohrle.

After watching Bayer limp to a 2-1 defeat against Banik Ostrava in midweek, Munich must have been full of confidence before the tie but Bayer manager Klaus Augenthaler, said to possess the archetypal iron fist in a velvet glove, had his charges fired up.

Bulgarian international Berbatov opened the scoring in the 20th minute racing on to an exquisite pass from Franca to slot home.

The Brazilian then dismantled Bayern in seven minutes scoring twice (52, 57) and setting up strike partner Berbatov on 59 minutes.

Steam was coming out of Magath's ears in the Bayern dug-out and he dragged off World Cup winner Lucio and Ze Roberto on the hour mark.

Ballack struck a consolation goal late on but the day belonged to Bayer who are perched at the Bundesliga summit.

Champions Bremen can reclaim top spot with a draw over VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday.

VfB Stuttgart occupy second place after defeating Kaiserslautern 3-2 with German international Kevin Kuranyi scoring a hat-trick (31, 53, 81).

At the other end of the table, SV Hamburg coach Klaus Toppmoller was handed some breathing space with a thrilling 4-3 win over FC Nuremberg.

Hamburg had been knocked out of the Intertoto Cup, humbled by SC Paderborn in the German Cup and lost their opening two fixtures of the Bundesliga campaign.

However a late goal from German international Benjamin Lauth secured a first three points for Hamburg and moved the 1983 European champions off bottom spot.