BERLIN. Dec 1 I.

Haver Leverkusen * thrashed 10-man

W* Hertha Berlin 4-0 ™ W "ii Sunday in a winner-takes-all b.title to shoot to the top of (he Himdesliga (able, reports AFP.

A win lor either side would haw pm them top but Berlin |iac<-setters at the beginning ol (he weekend, must now settle tor fourth spot.

•Schalke 04. who won 2-1 at home against bottom c lub MB Stuttgart to take provisional top spoi on Saturday, are now see'. '"*<1 .1 point behind Leverkusen

Borussia Dortmund twite liundeshiit. champions .md 1 'iKipe.in l( winners m (he Li'1 dei.nl. m (hircl SpOt i"" ' a 3,1 ">•' over Unter-

hachlng on Saturday to leave them two points behind the leaders.

German champions Bavern Munich could only draw 0-0 al Kaiserslautern on Saturday in another big fixture

Leverkusen have 31 points.

Schalke have 30 points. Dortmund 29. Berlin 28 and Bayern 27

Leverkusen, without German international sweeper Jens Nowotny and playmaker Michael Ballack. t>otli injured, ended a run of three home de-

feats including elimination by AEK Athens from the UEFA < ?up In midweek

German inteniational Oliver Neuville scored in the seventh and 19th minutes to put them ahead at the break and Carsten Ramelow, m the 67th minute, and Paulo Rink, from the spot with eight minutes to go, completed the scoring,

Ulf Kirsten might have given Leverkusen another goal in the 72nd minute but he failed to score from his spot kick Berlin's Brazil Alex Alves was sent ofl the same minute for violent conduct.

Al Gelsenkirchen. Schalke went ahead through Czech Republic's Radoslav Latal on 21 minutes and Poland's Tomasz Waldoch scored the winner on

90 minutes after Stuttgart s loan Ganra had equalised for th<- south west German club.

Waldoch headed home an Andreas Moller cross for victory against a 10-man Stuttgart side following the expulsion of Bulgarian Krassimir Balakov on 58 minutes for two yellow cards.

Stuttgart coach Ralf Rang-nick could now be on the verge of being sacked for poor do-mes(ic results, although his side reached the fourth round of the UEFA Cup after beating Holland's Feyenoord on Tues-

1860 Munich coach Werner will be pleased that his side have moved up from 16th place, a relegation position, io 12th thanks (o a 2-1 win over east German side Hansa Rostock.