Werder Bremen 3 FC St Pauli 0
Three goals from Hugo Almeida earned Werder Bremen a much-need victory at home to St. Pauli on Sunday.
The Portuguese striker bagged the lot in the 3-0 win over the promoted outfit, before blotting his copybook by being sent off for retaliation with ten minutes remaining.
Long time coming
The result gives Thomas Schaaf's men their first maximum points haul in eight matches, while St. Pauli's form slump continues - they are now without a win since Matchday 8.
Werder required all of 52 seconds to end a 450-minute competitive scoring drought, Hugo Almeida picking up a diagonal through-ball and running on to slot it past guest keeper Thomas Kessler. St. Pauli's response was immediate, an unmarked Gerald Asamoah getting on the end of a cross from the left and heading it onto the bar just a minute later.
Bremen forge ahead
Then it was promptly back to the other end in a turbulent opening few minutes, Kessler saving well from Per Mertesacker's shot on the rebound following an Almeida free kick. The last man in the St. Pauli back row then pulled off a double save from Marko Marin in the eighth minute, before a period of relative calm ensued. It lasted until Matthias Lehmann's 19th minute effort from 30 metres that had home keeper Tim Wiese stretching to tip it over the bar.
From the resultant corner the ball found its way to Marin, who sent Almeida on his way. The experienced frontman once again kept his nerve to come out on top in the one-on-one with Kessler, tucking the ball into the corner of the net to put the Green-Whites 2-0 up.
Almeida wraps things up
St. Pauli, once again, stormed right back up the park in reply and this time it was a shot from Marius Ebbers that Wiese somehow managed to tip onto the bar. It was starting to look like this would not be the Hamburg side's day. Two goals to the good, Werder now seemed happy to sit back rather more and await their chance on the break and there was little more in the way of goalmouth action for the rest of the half.
The slowed-down tempo was maintained at the start second 45, barring a couple of half-chances from shots outside the area at either end. Werder then struck for the third time in the 64th minute, Said Hsejinovic playing in a low ball which found its way to Almeida on the left-hand side of the box. The striker gave due thanks by planting it home for his and his team's third of the day.
Two off
There was unlikely to be any way back from that for St. Pauli, but Holger Stanislawski's troops battled gamely on and continued to carve out chances of their own. The next incident of note was less savoury though, as hat-trick hero Almeida received his marching orders with ten minutes to go after lashing out at St. Pauli defender Carlos Zambrano.
The guests continued to chase at least a consolation goal as the clock ticked down. In the final minute of regulation time Markus Thorandt chased rather too hard, unnecessarily chopping down Torsten Frings on the half-way line. For that, the St. Pauli defender also saw red.
Line-ups
Bremen: Wiese - Pasanen, Mertesacker, Prödl, Schmidt - Frings - Fritz, Kroos (Husejinovic 54') - Hunt (Balogun 89') � Marin (Wagner 87'), Almeida
St. Pauli: Kessler - Rothenbach, Zambrano, Thorandt, Oczipka - Boll (Naki 59') - Kruse, Asamoah, Lehmann, Bartels (Bruns 82') � Ebbers (Takyi 82')
Goals: 1-0 Almeida (1'), 2-0 Almeida (20'), 3-0 Almeida (64')
Red cards: Almeida (80'), Markus Thorandt (90')
Attendance at the Weserstadion: 36,400
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