Werder Bremen won the second division top game against Darmstadt 98 without five regular players and thus caught up with the new leaders FC St. Pauli.
In front of 41,000 spectators, the promotion favorites deservedly won 1-0 (0-0) on Saturday evening and also benefited from an early red card for Klaus Gjasula from Darmstadt in the 23rd minute.
The Lilies were the better team up to that point, but under increasing pressure they conceded the decisive goal from Niclas Füllkrug (52nd) shortly after the break.
Goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen prevented a higher defeat.
After the absence of top scorer Marvin Ducksch and the injured Ömer Toprak, Marco Friedl and Mitchell Weiser, Werder also had to do without Leonardo Bittencourt for a short time, who, like Ducksch, had tested positive for the corona virus.
With such a weakened substitute, Bremen started very cautiously until Gjasula's dismissal changed the course of the game.
Referee Robert Schröder (Hannover) initially only gave the 32-year-old a yellow card for a foul on Romano Schmid, but then looked at the offense again on his screen during the break in treatment for the Werder player.
Then he decided on red.
Shortly afterwards, Werder had a great double chance for Füllkrug (26'/29') and a hit against the post for Niklas Schmidt (43').
The Bremen team only managed to take the lead after the break with a well-played counterattack via Milos Veljkovic, Schmid, Eren Dinkci and the goalscorer Füllkrug.
Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht saw the disaster coming early and clapped his hands in the head during this attack.
After that, Bremen missed further good chances through Schmidt (62'), Dinkci (63'), Nick Woltemade (90' + 1') and another shot by the strong Schmid (79').
Darmstadt only had one chance to equalize through Braydon Manu (77th).