Bremen's Diego regrets costly red card
BERLIN (AFP) — Werder Bremen midfielder Diego admits he lost his head as his red card led to his side losing 1-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday to give Bundesliga leaders Bayern the chance to open a six-point gap.
Brazilian Diego - one of the league's biggest drawcards - was shown a straight red card for a shoulder charge on Frankfurt's Sotirios Kyrgiakos - who milked the foul for all it was worth - in the 40th minute.
But the Greek defender's international team-mate Ioannis Amanatidis extracted revenge when he scored for the home side on 56 minutes to humble Bremen and the defeat leaves second-placed Werder three points behind Bayern.
"I am constantly given a lot of attention by defences in games," the Brazilian, who could be suspended for up to four weeks by the league's disciplinary committee, told Premier television.
"I should be used to it by now, but I lost the head when he said to me 'F*** you!' and I shouldn't have done it."
With Bayern in action against fourth-placed Hamburg at the Allianz Arena on Sunday, this would have been the last thing Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf wanted as Munich already had a three-point lead.
Two of the Bundesliga's struggling sides, VfB Stuttgart and Duisburg, both produced spirited performances to boost their flagging league positions and confidence.
Defending champions VfB Stuttgart picked up their second consecutive win at home to Karlsruhe to cancel out their two previous defeats as Germany's 2007 player of the year Mario Gomez curled in a fifth minute shot to get the ball rolling in the 3-1 victory.
Germany midfielder Roberto Hilbert then followed it up with right-footed shot in the 26th minute.
The visitors grabbed a consolation goal through Hungary midfielder Tamas Hajnal, before Brazilian striker Cacau sealed the win with a 89th minute strike to put his side eighth.
Duisburg lifted themselves off the bottom with a 2-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld after the heart-break of their 3-2 defeat at home to Stuttgart last week when the winning goal was conceded deep into injury time.
Duisburg's Silvio Schroeter put his side ahead in the eighth minute before Nigerian striker Manasseh Ishiaku hit a 48th minute goal.
After the heroics of their 1-0 Champions League win over FC Porto on Tuesday, ten-man Schalke were humbled 1-0 by Bayer Leverkusen by a spectacular long-range pin-point accurate shot by Germany defender Manuel Friedrich on 85 minutes.
The shot gave Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer no chance as it flew into the top of the net and put Bayer third in the league, as Schalke's Jermaine Jones was sent off for a second yellow card deep into stoppage time.
"That was a bitter defeat for us," said Schalke coach Mirko Slomka, with his side down to fifth in the league.
"Jermaine is a competitive player, but a fair one. We lost out to a freak goal, but we should have worked harder in attack."
In the day's other match VfL Wolfsburg were held to a 0-0 draw by Hertha Berlin. On Friday, strugglers VfL Bochum picked up only their seventh win of the season when they beat Hanover 2-1.
And on Sunday, the Bundesliga's new bottom side Energie Cottbus and bottom three neighbours Nuremberg will slog it out in what is already becoming a desperate hunt for league points.
