Hamburg survived for almost an hour with 10 men to secure a 2-1 Bundesliga victory over northern German rivals Werder Bremen.

Joris Mathijsen gave Hamburg the lead after nine minutes, but Bruno Labbadia's men had Jerome Boateng sent off for a professional foul after 32 minutes. The hosts responded from the setback four minutes later by doubling the lead through Marcell Jansen and Naldo's late strike proved mere consolation for Bremen, who also struck the crossbar three times.

It was Bremen's second straight Bundesliga loss following a 23-game unbeaten streak. The showdown in Hamburg was the first game since these two teams faced off four times within 19 days in the semi-finals of the German Cup and UEFA Cup and the Bundesliga late last season.

Hamburg took the lead after nine minutes following a corner. Jansen headed back to the middle of the box where Mathijsen, headed home from five yards. Bremen nearly equalised 18 minutes later as Naldo's bicycle kick from 10 yards hammered off the crossbar.

The hosts were extremely dangerous on the counter attack and were close to doubling the lead a minute later but Werder defender Sebastian Prodl cleared Guy Demel's cross from the right side into the box just in front of a lurking Eljero Elia. Hamburg went a man down after 32 minutes as Boateng was shown a red card for his tackle as last man on Marko Marin.

The hosts shrugged off the disadvantage and made it 2-0 after 36 minutes with Elia beating Bremen's offside trap with a perfect pass to Jansen, whose first-time shot from 26 yards beat Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese. Prodl's header went wide right from six yards after 41 minutes and Wiese needed an acrobatic save to deny Mathijsen from five yards seconds before the interval.

Wiese twice was forced to make tough saves after counter attacks Mladen Petric threatened to finish. Bremen pushed forward with all their might but Aaron Hunt hammered a 17-yard shot off the crossbar in the 84th minute and Marin following with his own blast off the framework a minute later. Naldo finally headed in to pull a goal back three minutes into stoppage time.