Hamburg loanee Sidney Sam was the hero for the visitors, notching an impressive hat-trick, two of which came in the final eight minutes of the match.

Hit on the counter

In spite of the fact that Aachen dictated much of the first-half play, it was Lautern who opened the scoring through Sam on 18 minutes. Pierre de Vit picked the ball up from a Aachen corner and played the ball forward to the young German striker, who beat Thorsten Stuckmann from the edge of the box with a low drive.

Points secured from the spot

Indeed, it was on the counter that the promotion hopefuls won the match, though it took until the 82nd minute for Sam to strike his and FCK's second, this time the former German youth international receiving the ball from Ivo Ilicevic before beating the lethargic Seyi Olajengbesi and firing past the helpless Stuckmann.

Lautern made absolutely sure of the three points with four minutes remaining when Olajengbesi felled Georges Mandjeck in the box, Sam converting the resulting penalty with aplomb to seal his hat-trick and fire the visitors storm back to the top of the table with a point advantage over second-placed FC St. Pauli. Aachen, meanwhile, miss the chance top hop three places in the table to eighth.

Aachen: Stuckmann - Casper, Herzig, Olajengbesi, Jepsen - Adlung, Kratz, Burkhardt (Szukala 75'), Milchraum (Uludag 66') - B. Auer, Gueye (Nemeth 75')

Kaiserslautern: Sippel - Dick, Amedick, Rodnei, Bugera - Sam, Bilek, de Wit (Mandjeck 46'), Ilicevic (Hornig 84') - Lakic (Jendrisek 63'), Nemec

Goals: 0-1 Sam (18'), 0-2 Sam (82'), 0-3 Sam (pen 86')

Attendance: 21,300 (Tivoli)


Andy James