Werder Bremen battled back with a stoppage-time goal from defender Per Mertesacker to draw 2-2 with champions VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday and go top of the Bundesliga table on goal difference.
Wolfsburg thought they had won the game when striker Edin Dzeko scored his second goal of the afternoon five minutes from time to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Mertesacker, though, rose above the Wolfsburg defense in stoppage time to head in the equalizer from a Mesut Ozil corner.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“We were not focused in defense and made it easy for our opponents,” Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf told reporters.
“We had enough today chances to decide the match in our favor. But today we were lacking the right balance between offence and defense,” he said.
Schalke 04 missed the chance to go top when they lost 1-0 at Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Hamburg failed to close in on the top when Mainz earned a 1-1 draw with an 84th minute goal from Tim Hoogland. Hamburg are in fourth place, on 24 points.
Hoffenheim are fifth, a point behind, after losing 2-1 to visitors Borussia Dortmund. The hosts were reduced to 10 men two minutes later after Maicosuel was sent off.
Wolfsburg ’keeper Diego Benaglio denied Bremen an early lead when he stopped striker Hugo Almeida’s fifth-minute header going into the top corner of his goal.
Dzeko fired the visitors into the lead three minutes before the break when he beat three Bremen defenders inside the box and thundered in a close-range shot.
Almeida notched his third goal in two matches on 62 minutes when he fired in from close range after Aaron Hunt’s backheel was saved on the line.
Dzeko then struck on the break with five minutes remaining, slotting home to put Wolfsburg back in the lead before Mertesacker headed in from close range.
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