Three and easy for Nurnberg

Nurnberg made it two wins out of two in 2014 with a controversial 3-1 victory at Hertha Berlin on Sunday.

Nurnberg made it two wins out of two in 2014 with a controversial 3-1 victory at Hertha Berlin on Sunday. Josip Drmic scored twice for the Bavarians, taking him on to 10 goals for the season and four in two games, but the hosts were left fuming by a decision which denied them an equaliser late on. Adrian Ramos gave Hertha the lead before Markus Feulner levelled and Drmic put the visitors in front, but the real drama was reserved for the final few minutes when Hertha were first awarded a penalty only to see the referee change his mind. The official then gave the Bavarians a penalty, from which Drmic wrapped up the win. Hertha took the lead only four minutes in when Ramos netted his 12th goal of the season, a near-post header from a corner, to move clear at the top of the scoring charts . Ramos missed a chance to make it two before Feulner pounced on a mistake by Johannes van der Bergh to bring the Bavarians level after 20 minutes. Both sides had chances to go in front before the break, the best of which was wasted by Ramos, who only had Raphael Schafer to beat from 16 yards out, but lifted his shot over the bar. Nurnberg took the lead midway through the second half when Daniel Ginczek struck a post with his shot, and the ball fell out kindly for Drmic. It looked like Hertha were going to level in the last minute when Ronny looped a shot towards goal from 30 yards, only for Ondrej Petrak to keep the ball out with his hand. The referee's whistle sounded before Ramos touched the ball in on the rebound and he showed the Nurnberg defender a red card while pointing to the spot. Hertha wanted the goal instead, but in the end they got nothing. The referee consulted with his assistant, who said Ramos had been offside from Ronny's original shot and that the play should therefore have been stopped before Petrak handled the ball. He took back both the penalty and the red card, only to award a spot-kick at the other end when Marcel Ndjeng fouled Drmic. Drmic stepped up to convert from the spot and seal a 3-1 win for Nurnberg, who moved out of the bottom three as a result.