Sat May 3 12:54:42 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Bremen stays alive for one more day

---

Bremen, Germany (Sports Network) - Werder Bremen's title hopes will live to see at least one more day after the club beat Energie 2-0 on Saturday to move to within nine points of league-leaders Bayern Munich.

Bayern has a big edge in goal differential and they will need only one point from their final four games to secure a 21st Bundesliga title. Bayern will have a chance to clinch the crown on Sunday when they visit Wolfsburg.

Although the title is all but out of reach for Bremen, Saturday's win put them two points clear of Schalke in the race for second place after Schalke was held to a 1-1 draw by Hannover.

A second-place finish would secure an automatic berth in the Champions League, giving Bremen something to play for in its final three games.

Bremen controlled the game from the start but failed to find a goal until the 68th minute, when Markus Rosenberg opened the scoring by blasting a shot past Energie goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel.

Torsten Frings set up the opening goal for Rosenberg, who then provider himself in the 79th minute to seal the win.

He played a nice one-two with Tim Borowski, who then picked out an open Hugo Almeida at the back post for an easy tap in and a two-goal win.

Energie's loss leaves them in danger of the relegation zone as they are just four points clear with three games to play.

Both Hamburg and Stuttgart benefited from Schalke's draw to keep their Champions League hopes alive. The two teams are level on 51 points after both recorded wins to move to within four points of Schalke.

Yildiray Basturk scored two goals for Stuttgart in a comfortable 4-1 win over Eintracht, while Hamburg got two goals from Ivica Olic to help them beat Rostock 3-1.

Arminia Bielefeld moved four points clear of the drop zone with a 2-0 win over Bochum, while Hertha Berlin secured its safety by beating Karlsruher, 3-1.