Treble and dismissal for Werder´s Almeida

Hugo Almeida scored a hat-trick but was then red-carded as Werder Bremen took the first step in salvaging a disappointing season on Sunday by defeating St. Pauli 3-0 and snapping a seven-game winless streak.

Almeida scored in the first and 20th minutes to give Bremen a 2-0 lead before the Portuguese international added a third goal in the 64th minute as Werder ended their drought stretching through league, German Cup and Champions League action.

But Almeida was then given his marching orders in the 80th minute for an elbow to Carlos Zambrano. And St. Pauli’s Markus Thorandt also saw red in the 90th minute.

Almeida’s first goal came just 52 seconds into the game after Bremen had not scored in their last five matches.

Bremen have been bounced out of the German Cup and the Champions League and failed to qualify for the Europa League, meaning Thomas Schaaf’s team can focus solely on saving their Bundesliga season – where they stand 11th on the table with 18 points – five points from a Europa League spot.

“I had been fouled a lot during the whole game and I just lost my nerve. But that cannot happen and I apologise to the club and my team-mates,” said Almeida about his red card.

Wolfsburg were later out to move past Bremen with a victory later Sunday at second-to-last Cologne.

The leaders after the 14th round of games are still Borussia Dortmund, who retained their seven-point lead atop the Bundesliga with a come-from-behind 4-1 victory at home Saturday night over Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Dortmund fell behind after 33 minutes to a Marco Reus goal. But Neven Subotic, Shinji Kawaga, Kevin Grosskreutz and Lucas Barrios turned things around.

The victory was Dortmund’s fifth straight, leaving Juergen Klopp’s team on 37 points.

“It’s more relief than anything else. Gladbach were strong and disciplined,” said Klopp.

The win also kept Dortmund at an arm’s length from their top challengers with 37 points.

Mainz had pulled to within four points with 30 points with a convincing 3-0 victory at home over Nuremberg on Friday night before falling back to seven points adrift.

Bayer Leverkusen remained third with 26 points after wasting a 2-0 lead after 10 minutes and giving up a penalty goal four minutes into stoppage time to Gylfi Thor Sigurdsson in a 2-2 draw at Hoffenheim (22 points).

Hannover are fourth with 25 points after a 3-0 victory at home over Freiburg with Jan Schlaudraff, Didier Ya Konen and Mike Hanke on target.

Reigning Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich cruised to a 4-1 victory at home over Eintracht Frankfurt as they seek to shrug off a poor start to the Bundesliga season.

During the week, Bayern’s bosses demanded 10 points from the final four matches before the winter break, and Louis van Gaal’s men gained the first three of those points in extending their undefeated streak to seven matches for 23 points and fifth place – three points from the Champions League qualification spot of third place.

But they are 14 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk’s goal in the 29th minute for Bayern was equalised four minutes later by Theofanis Gekas. But Thomas Mueller, Mario Gomez and then Tymoshchuk again rounded out a fine win.

“We know that we are way behind and are not the favourites and that we need the points,” said Gomez, who scored in his seventh straight game and 15th goal in the last 11 matches.

Schalke’s struggles continued with a 5-0 loss at Kaiserslautern with Srdjan Lakic scoring two goals.

“That was a catastrophe,” said Schalke captain Manuel Neuer, whose side are now 15th.