Europa League

Peruvian international Pizarro handed Bremen a deserved 3-2 victory, scoring the winning goal in the last five minutes of the match.

Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said he was happy that his side managed to clinch the victory. "Thank goodness we won. We made it difficult for ourselves. We should have scored a third much earlier and then we would not have been under so much pressure at the end."

Goals by Torsten Frings and Claudio Pizarro seemed to have given last year's UEFA Cup finalists the edge but then Nacional's Felipe Lopes and Rafik Halliche clawed back two goals late in the second half.

In the other matches played on Thursday Rapid Vienna beat Bundesliga leaders Hamburg 3-0 in Group C.

First-half goals by German Steffen Hofmann and Nikica Jelavic punished some poor defending by Hamburg and gave the home side a two-goal advantage at the break. Rapid's Christopher Drazan then put matters beyond doubt for Bruno Labbadia's team in the 76th minute.

"We lost the game because we made too many individual mistakes. Some of us were not at their highest level and that is why we could not come back into the game," said Hamburg striker Mladen Petric.

In their Group D match Hertha Berlin drew 1-1 against newcomers Latvian club Ventspils. Lukasz Piszczek gave the home side the lead in the 34th minute, but Edgars Gauracs leveled matters three minutes after the restart.

Hertha goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny was stretchered off in the 20th minute.

"We were our own biggest enemies on the day and made life difficult for us", said Berlin's Maximilian Nicu.

The Europa League replaced the UEFA Cup at the start of the season.

nrt/dpa/AFP/AP

Editor: Andreas Illmer