Bremen's woes continue with Duisburg defeat

Duisburg entered the match on the bottom of the league table, but first-half strikes from Ivica Grlic and Manasseh Ishiaku helped give the club a 2-0 lead at the break. Diego pulled a goal back for Bremen in the 58th minute, but they were unable to find another and have now gone winless in their last four league games.

With all of the trouble that Bremen has had in the league in recent weeks, a positive start was much needed. However, it was the visitors who seized the advantage in the 32nd minute when Grlic curled a perfect shot around the wall and into the lower right corner to stun the home supporters.

It took just nine minutes for Duisburg to double its lead when Bjorn Schlicke played provider for Ishiaku. The defender found Ishiaku in the middle of the box and he found the bottom right corner to put his side up two goals at the break.

Diego handed the hosts some hope after the break when he scored a superb free kick of his own. He struck the shot from the left wing and it sailed all the way through the face of goal and snuck inside the far post to make it 2-1.

Bremen was given new life and they went on the attack over the remaining 30 minutes of the match.

A number of chances were wasted by off-target efforts, but Duisburg goalkeeper Tom Starke was called upon to preserve all three points in the final minutes when Diego picked out Ivan Klasnic and his header was turned away by a nice save from the keeper.

The top teams in Germany all struggled on Saturday as league-leaders Bayern Munich needed a goal in the 81st minute from Lukas Podolski to salvage a 1-1 draw at Nurnberg.

Second-place Hamburg also had to settle for a point as they finished 1-1 with Arminia Bielefeld. Jose Paolo Guerrero scored in the 82nd minute for Hamburg to erase Markus Bollmann's goal 10 minutes earlier for Arminia.

Schalke moved into third place ahead of Bayer Leverkusen despite being held to a 0-0 draw by Karlsruher. Leverkusen slipped into fourth after they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Eintracht.

Bochum and Borussia Dortmund finished 3-3 in Saturday's other match.