An Aaron Hunt penalty coupled with a second-half strike by Nils Petersen gave Werder Bremen a 2-0 victory over Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga this afternoon.
The home side almost broke the deadlock as early as the fourth minute when Nils Petersen jumped high in the area, only to see his header turned onto the post by Rene Adler in the Hamburg goal.
Adler was the far busier of the two shotstoppers, pulling off reaction saves to deny Sebastian Prodl and Marko Arnautovic in the opening half hour.
Werder Bremen had a great chance to take the lead when they were awarded an penalty on 42 minutes. Hunt stepped up to take it, but Alder guessed right and pulled off the save.
The second half was no more than six minutes old when the hosts were awarded their second penalty of the afternoon, and Hunt redeemed himself for his early miss, firing home for 1-0.
Hamburg's Ivo Ilicevic squandered an opportunity to draw his side level on 65 minutes, and lived to regret it when Nils Petersen struck to double the home side's lead two minutes later.
The visitors' best chance to reduce the deficit fell to Maximilian Beister in the 82nd minute, but he couldn't find a way past Sebastian Mielitz and the score remained at 2-0.
Mark Langshaw
