Bremen claim northern bragging rights
Bremen - SV Werder Bremen took the honours in the 100th northern Germany derby at the Weser Stadion, with Zlatko Junuzovic's first-half goal enough to decide a pulsating game.
Tale of two halves
Bremen's call for a vociferous, partisan support was answered with the Weser Stadion becoming the hostile home they had hoped for and Hamburg running scared from the get-go. It may have taken Bremen nearly 20 minutes to open the scoring, but it could not be said it was not in the air as Junuzovic slotted the ball underneath Rene Adler from close range.
A diligent Ludovic Obraniak was proving to be a thorn in the side of the Hamburg defence with his incursions down the left wing, but Hamburg almost levelled out of nothing just before the interval when Hakan Calhanoglu's shot was tipped onto the crossbar by Raphael Wolf. That effort seemed to give Hamburg a lift, while it would be interesting to know what Slomka said during the interval as the Red Shorts emerged completely transformed.
Rafael van der Vaart was on the pitch, but the change went deeper than that. It was Bremen's turn to defend as they weathered a storm of advancing Hamburg shirts with the derby living up to it's billing. It was end-to-end stuff, nailbiting for the fans of both sides as Hamburg's followers urged their team forwards while Bremen's invoked a response culminating with Obraniak's shot tipped over and Petr Jiracek clearing Santiago Garcia's effort off the line as Werder moved six points clear of the drop zone.
Line-ups and statistics
Aaron Hunt's sensational backheeled assist is not to be missed. Check it out on the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel:
