BEIJING, Feb. 18 -- Werder Bremen ground out a 2-0 win at home to 10-man FC Nuremberg on Saturday to move level on points with Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich, at least for a night.

    Nuremberg, playing its first league game under new coach Thomas von Heesen, made life awkward for the title challenger early on but its hopes of an upset were hit in the 20th minute when Ivan Saenko needlessly received a second yellow card.

    Werder duly took the lead after a nice finish from Markus Rosenberg 10 minutes later and with nine minutes to go Ivan Klasnic headed in the second to seal the win.

    The result saw Werder move up on to Bayern's shoulder with 40 points from 20 games. Bayern will re-establish its three-point lead if it wins away to Hanover 96 later.

    At the other end of the table, the Angela Merkel effect failed to materialize for Energie Cottbus, with the struggler going down 0-2 at home to Borussia Dortmund as the German Chancellor, its newest honorary member, looked on.

    Cottbus, which welcomed Merkel as member No. 2008 before kickoff, fell behind to a Mladen Petric goal in the 8th. Petric grabbed his second six minutes from the end to take his season tally to 11 and move top of the Bundesliga's scoring table.

    Cottbus is second from bottom with 16 points, two points ahead of MSV Duisburg, which lost 2-3 at home to champion VfB Stuttgart.

    Schalke 04 lost ground in the race for Champions League places with a 1-2 defeat at VfL Wolfsburg on Friday but Bayer Leverkusen was not able to take full advantage, drawing 2-2 away to Karlsruhe, to go third on 35 points, ahead of Schalke on goal difference.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies)