Freiburg beat Bremen 2-1 and are excited about the Champions League

BERLIN (AP) — Freiburg turned the score around to beat Werder Bremen 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Sunday to bolster its Champions League bid. Union Berlin won third place despite a 1-1 draw with Bochum.

Successive goals from Roland Sallai and Lucas Höler midway through the second half rounded Maximilian Philipp’s 46th-minute goal for Bremen.

Freiburg took a point behind Leipzig.

Höler combed the ball over to Sallai for the latter to score Freiburg’s 1,000th Bundesliga goal after 67 minutes. Four minutes later, Sallai returned the courtesies to Höler to score the number 1,001 with a header.

The top four in the Bundesliga qualify directly for Europe’s highest club competition. There will be six dates left to play after this weekend.

Union’s draw against Bochum was enough to keep them in third place – just a point ahead of Leipzig.

It could have been worse for Unión after defender Paul Jaeckel was sent off after 62 minutes for a double warning.

Josip Juranovic scored the capital side’s goal from a free-kick shortly before relegation.

Bochum came out with more momentum in the plug-in and Aïssa Laïdouni’s kick to Ivan Ordets led to a penalty which Kevin Stöger converted at 55.

In Sunday’s main game, sixth-placed Bayer Leverkusen did not go beyond a 0-0 draw when visiting Wolfsburg.

Earlier on Sunday, bottom club Hertha Berlin sacked Sandro Schwarz as coach and rehired Pál Dárdai for a third term at the helm to avoid relegation.