Werder keeps on winning

Werder keeps on winning

Werder Bremen continued their march up the Bundesliga with a comfortable 2-0 victory at struggling Stuttgart.

Claudio Pizarro gave Bremen the lead after just three minutes and Aaron Hunt made it 2-0 six minutes after half-time as Werder stretched their undefeated run to seven games.

Thomas Schaaf's team have collected four wins in that stretch and jumped to fourth place in the table with 15 points.

Markus Babbel's Stuttgart side could not build upon their win last week over Eintracht Frankfurt which ended a four-game winless streak. They stand 13th in the league with eight points.

Werder made the perfect start to the game with the early goal. Marko Marin eased past Stuttgart defender Stefano Celozzi on the left side and sent a high cross to the far right post where Pizarro out-jumped Arthur Boka to head past Stuttgart goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

The guests had a golden chance to double the advantage after 21 minutes as Torsten Frings fed Mesut Ozil down the right wing but the youngster could not beat Lehmann and Boka fended away Pizarro's attempt to convert on the rebound.

Stuttgart stayed with Bremen but could not create many scoring chances although they went close 11 minutes from half-time. Cacau fed Julian Schieber near the edge of the area but Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese was able to fend away Schieber's blasted shot.

Werder did not take long after the break to pull 2-0 ahead. Ozil was quick to take a free-kick on the left wing and found a charging Hunt, who was faster than Boka and chested the ball down before beating Lehmann with his shot into the far right corner.

Lehmann did a good job keeping his team in the game, stopping Marin five minutes later after he had worked himself space on a counter-attack.

Stuttgart missed a chance with 14 minutes left as Sami Khedira could not get enough on Boka's cross from the right side to beat Wiese from nine yards.