Werder Bremen drew level with German Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday thanks to a 2-0 home win over 10-man Nurnberg.Werder were given a helping hand when Ivan Saenko was dismissed after 20 minutes and needed just 10 minutes to take advantage with Markus Rosenberg putting them 1-0 up.
That is how the score remained until nine minutes from time when Ivan Klasnic's header made it two.
Bayern can restore their three-point lead when they travel to Hannover on Sunday.
A 2-2 draw at Karlsruhe was enough to move Bayer Leverkusen into third after Schalke's 2-1 defeat to Wolfsburg on Friday.
Leverkusen would have expected to claim all three points when goals from Simon Rolfes (six) and Stefan Kiessling (58) put them two up.
But Sebastian Freis pulled one back two minutes later and Joshua Kennedy earned Karlsruhe a point 12 minutes before the end.
Hamburg will have the chance to leapfrog both Schalke and Leverkusen when they host Bochum on Sunday.
Stuttgart also let a two-goal lead slip at Duisburg - but struck late on to take the three points in a 3-2 victory.
Mario Gomez scored after 16 and 40 minutes to put the visitors in a comfortable position, but Claudio Niculescu pulled one back four minutes after the break.
Substitute Manaseh Ishiaku completed the comeback just before the hour mark, but Thomas Hitzlsperger's last-minute strike meant it was all in vain.
Struggling Hansa Rostock manage to subdue Eintracht Frankfurt sensation Martin Fenin and reaped the benefit with a 1-0 home win.
Fenin had scoring four goals in his first two league outings for Frankfurt but could not keep up his record as Christian Rahn scored the only goal of the game 15 minutes from time.
Arminia Bielefeld slipped ever closer to the relegation zone as Hertha Berlin snatched a late 1-0 home win.
Bielefeld looked set for their first point of 2008, but a Rafael goal in stoppage time saw them fall to 15th place, just two points above the drop zone.
In Saturday's other match, a brace by Mladen Petric handed Borussia Dortmund an important 2-0 victory at Energie Cottbus in the fight against relegation.
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