Football: Bierhoff back to best as hat-trick humbles Moldova

OLIVER BIERHOFF recaptured his scoring form in spectacular fashion last night with three goals which inspired Germany to a 6-1 demolition of Moldova in a European Championship qualifier in Leverkusen. The win puts Germany three points ahead of Turkey at the top of Group Three with 12 points from five matches.

Bierhoff, who had gone four matches without a goal for his country, warmed up by hitting the bar from a Marco Bode cross after just a few seconds. The Milan striker, whose last international goal had come in an unconvincing 3-1 win over the same opponents last October, then started his hat-trick, scoring from an Ulf Kirsten pass in the second minute. Bierhoff gave the European champions a 4-0 lead in the 55th minute and scored again eight minutes from time. Ulf Kirsten, of Bayer Leverkusen, had put Germany 2- 0 ahead in the 27th minute and Marco Bode made it 3-0 seven minutes from half-time.

The substitute Mehmet Scholl scored Germany's fifth goal with a well- taken effort in the 71st minute after he jinked past two defenders to score from the corner of the box.

The hosts dropped their guard to allow the Moldova midfielder Gheorghe Stratulat to score the visitors' only goal in the 76th minute. Germany's next qualifier is away to Finland on 4 September. Moldova remain bottom of group three with two points from six games.

Just before the break the Bayern Munich midfielder Jens Jeremies had to come off with a shoulder injury which puts him in doubt for the German Cup final against Werder Bremen on 12 June in Berlin.

A Russian side with their backs against the wall take on the world champions, France, without the injured Zinedine Zidane, in a Euro 2000 Group Four qualifier in St-Denis today.

The Russians must win at the Stade de France to stay in contention for the finals and avoid missing out on two successive major tournaments. They failed to reach last year's World Cup in France and now lie fourth in their group, five points behind the joint leaders and three adrift of Iceland. Only a victory over France, unbeaten in 19 matches since losing a World Cup warm-up 1-0 in Moscow 15 months ago, will maintain Russia's interest in the competition. "We have to play attacking football," their coach, Oleg Romantsev, said.

With the former Millwall striker Sergei Yuran, who hit the only goal in the friendly in March 1998, off form, Romantsev is pinning his scoring hopes on a new discovery, Alexander Panov, who scored twice in St Petersburg's 3-1 Russian Cup final win over Dynamo Moscow last week. To add to their problems, the Russians are without two stalwarts at the back, the injured Benfica goalkeeper Sergei Ovchinnikov and Roma's Dimitri Alenichev.

The French, who won 3-2 in Moscow in October, are joint top of the group, along with Ukraine, on 11 points each.