Bremen top table after draw with Wolfsburg

Berlin: 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 Bosnian 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 defence in stoppage time to head in the equaliser from a Mesut Ozil corner.

Bremen, who are now unbeaten for 21 consecutive matches in all competitions, are on 27 points, the same as Bayer Leverkusen, who can go back on top if they win against VfB Stuttgart.

"We were not focused in defence and made it easy for our opponents," Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf told reporters.

‘Enough chances'

"We had enough chances to decide the match in our favour. But today we were lacking the right balance between offence and defence," he said.

Schalke 04, third on 25 points, 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 to visitors Borussia Dortmund 2-1 with a 79th-minute penalty from Nuri Sahin. 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 Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida's fifth-minute header.

Dzeko fired the visitors into the lead minutes before the break. In-form Almeida, who had earlier missed from close range, notched up his third goal in two matches on 62 minutes.

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.