German Bundesliga match report: Freiburg v W Bremen

Werder Bremen got back to winning ways after back-to-back defeats with a 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Freiburg.

Franco Di Santo scored the only goal of the game in spectacular fashion to earn the northern Germany side a welcome three points to alleviate a little the disappointment of losing to third-division Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal in midweek.

Freiburg fought hard but they had no reply and, as a result, remain inside the bottom two of the Bundesliga for at least another week.

Bremen coach Viktor Skripnik made three changes to the side which was knocked out of the cup by Bielefeld with Philipp Bargfrede back after injury, Levan Oztunali returning for Davie Selke and Raphael Wolf back in goal for Koen Casteels.

For Selke, it was his first time back on the bench in the second half of the season, and he watched on as Bremen's attack was given little service anyway against a motivated Freiburg side.

The hosts could have taken the lead when Jonathan Schmid's shot was turned behind by a great save from Wolf, but they fell behind against the run of play to a goal which no goalkeeper was going to stop.

Di Santo took the ball down well from Oztunali's cross and, on the turn, found the opposite corner with an unstoppable effort.

Fin Bartels dragged a shot wide as Bremen nearly doubled their lead before the interval, before reverting to a more defensive approach in the second half.

Freiburg inevitably came out fighting, forcing Bremen onto the back foot in their search for an equaliser.

The closest they came was in the 65th minute when Schmid's cross was met by substitute Marc-Oliver Kempf, but he headed over.

Wolf then made a fine save to deny Admir Mehmedi two minutes from time as Werder held on.