All Football

Last season's runners-up Werder Bremen, reduced to 10 men, held out to win a thriller against newly promoted Hoffenheim. After a poor start, Werder are beginning to catch up with the leaders.

In a nail-biting thriller that was fastt and furious from the word go, Bremen won out 5:4 in the end after leading 4:2 in a six-goal first half. Hoffenheim, down 1:4 after half an hour, clawed three goals back only to lose out to an 81st minute winning goal from Mesut Özil.

By this point, Bremen were down to 10 men. German international Per Mertesacker was sent off after a professional foul in the 61st minute.

Özil first and last

Özil (8.) had also put Bremen into the lead. But Demba Ba struck back for Hoffenheim after 15 minutes to level the score. A minute later, Bremen were back in front through Claudio Pizzaro with Diego (21.) and Aaron Hunt (30.) adding two more soon after. Sejad Salihovic (36.) helped limit Bremen's interval lead to two.

Visitors Hoffenheim matched the home side in everything except goals, twice striking the post and the crossbar instead of the net. They also had one goal chance cleared off the line by Pizzaro.

Hoffenheim never give up hope

Hoffenheim - the name translates as “home of hopes” - lived up their name. They continued to play with three at the front, even as they lagged by three goals, and created numerous chances.

In the second half, Werder seemed to run out of steam, trying to keep possession and their opponents especially after Mertesacker's red card.

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