Bremen get the better of Hamburg - again

By DB Peters May 10, 2009, 17:35 GMT

Hamburg - Werder Bremen on Sunday again got the better of SV Hamburg when they beat their northern German rivals 2-0 in a Bundesliga match played on Sunday.

In the other game played on Sunday Borussia Moenchengladbach kept alive their hopes of retaining their Bundesliga status with a last- minute 1-0 victory at home over Schalke 04.

Last month Bremen won a semi-final in the German Cup in Hamburg in a penalty shoot-out, while they beat their rivals 3-2 in an UEFA Cup semi-final match played in Hamburg on Thursday to advance to the final on the away goals rule.

Both goals for Bremen were scored by Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida, who like Brazilian playmaker Diego will miss the UEFA Cup final through suspension.

Swede Markus Rosenberg set up the first goal in the 34th minute with a pass to Almeida, which the striker simply had to push into an empty goal.

Four minutes after the restart Almeida added a second with a deft right-footed shot off a pass from Mezut Oezil.

The result keeps Hamburg in sixth place on 55 points, one place below a place that would see them qualify for Europe, while Bremen remain in 10th place on 42 points

Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf, who was celebrating his tenth year in charge of Werder Bremen on the day, said that he thought his side deserved the victory.

'Of course we did not expect that we would do so well against Hamburg. We believed in our chances from the start, but we could not think before the matches that we would win all the important games.'

Former Bremen goalkeeper Frank Rost, who now plays for Hamburg, said that his side simply did not do enough with their own chances. 'I think we had two or three really good chances from which we should have scored.'

Borussia Moenchgladbach's German international Marko Marin missed a first-half penalty for his side as Manuel Neuer dived to his left to palm the ball away.

Both sides threw caution to the wind late in the second half as they went forward in search of a winning goal, which seemed to have eluded both teams as the game went to the 90th minute goalless.

Former German international Oliver Neuville, who came on in the second half, created a goal for Roberto Colautti in the last minute.

The victory takes Moenchengladbach to 27 points - one place above the drop zone.

Moenchengladbach captain Felip Daems said that even though the victory had been really important, they had not achieved anything. 'We are still in great trouble and have a very difficult game at Energie Cottbus midweek.'

On Saturday, the title race was thrown wide open when VfL Wolfsburg were beaten 4-1 at VfB Stuttgart, while their main challengers Bayern Munich won 3-1 at Energie Cottbus.

With three games remaining, Wolfsburg and Bayern are on 60 points, while Hertha Berlin, who beat VfL Bochum 2-0 are on 59. Stuttgart have a point less, while Dortmund and Hamburg are on 55.