Werder Bremen's struggles continued as they could only manage a draw at Hannover.
Christian Schulz gave the hosts the lead after nine minutes and Hugo Almeida equalized in the 41st for Bremen.
The draw left Werder with just two points from their last three games and eighth in the league with 13 points - five behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Bremen came into the contest missing a number of top players including goalkeeper Tim Wiese, playmaker Diego, striker Claudio Pizarro and defender Per Mertesacker.
Despite the absentees, Thomas Schaaf's team started in fine form, but they watched Hannover grab the lead in the ninth minute.
Szabolcs Huszti sent a corner into the area where former Bremen player Schulz headed in at the near post.
Bremen continued to push forward but Hannover keeper Florian Fromlowitz denied both Markus Rosenberg and Naldo in the 15th minute.
Fromlowitz could not however stop Almeida four minutes before the break. Jurica Vranjes passed onto Almeida who placed a perfect left-foot shot into the top-left corner.
Hannover had a goal disallowed in the 51st minute as Jan Schlaudraff was ruled offside.
Bremen continued to press but missed another gold opportunity with 18 minutes left. After some fine passing by Clemens Fritz and Rosenberg, the ball landed at the feet of Aaron Hunt who could not beat Fromlowitz from six yards.
Hannover nearly grabbed the victory in the final stages, but Fritz cleared Schlaudraff's shot from the left side and then Schlaudraff's blast a minute later was fended away by Bremen keeper Christian Vander.
