Werder Bremen 2 - 1 Hamburg SV

Werder Bremen 2-1 Hamburg SV

Updated: December 1, 2007, 11:39 AM ET

BREMEN, December 1 (Bundesliga) - Werder Bremen took over the lead in the German Bundesliga for 24 hours at least with a victory at home over Hamburg.

In a battle of two of the most in-form teams in the league, Boubacar Sanogo gave Bremen the lead in the 15th minute.

Rafael van der Vaart evened things up in the 61st minute but Petri Pasanen clinched the Bremen victory three minutes later.

Bremen thus won their fourth straight game and collected their eight victory in their last 10 games to move atop the Bundesliga with 33 points.

Bayern Munich are second with 31 points but play at Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday.

Hamburg remained third after their first loss in 10 games and have 30 points. Huub Stevens's team had collected seven wins in their last nine games.

Bremen grabbed the lead in the 15th minute with a fine goal by Sanogo.

Jurica Vranjes beat the offside trap with a pass into the left side of the area and the former Hamburg striker Sanogo slotted it past Frank Rost into the far right corner.

Van der Vaart and Ivica Olic both had top chances to even the game over the course of the first half.

Bremen seemed pleased with the 1-0 lead and were finally penalised in the 61st minute. Bremen's second string keeper Christian Vander played a back pass directly to Van der Vaart who lofted a looping volley over Vander's head for the equaliser.

But Bremen answered just four minutes later as Pasanen's cross was deflected off Vincent Kompany towards Rost, who made a vain attempt to keep it out of his goal.

Hamburg attempted to push forward for another equaliser but just could not get past Bremen's defense which held out to claim a win that was worth top spot.