Halil Altintop scored the only goal of the game after 21 minutes, but the visitors must have feared the worst 20 minutes from time when Jermaine Jones was sent off.

But the numbers were evened up six minutes later when Franck Ribery was dismissed for a second bookable offence, and the hosts failed to salvage anything from the match in the remaining 14 minutes.

Jurgen Klinsmann's team remain third in the standings, three points behind leaders Wolfsburg and one behind Hertha Berlin.

The Wolves visit Energie Cottbus tomorrow while Hertha won 1-0 at Hoffenheim last night.

Elsewhere this afternoon, Stuttgart leapfrogged Hamburg to take over fourth position.

Cacau and Mario Gomez bagged the goals in either half for Stuttgart in a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, while Martin Jol's Hamburg went down by the same scoreline at Borussia Dortmund thanks to Sebastian Kehl's first-half strike and Alexander Frei's last-minute penalty.

Werder Bremen produced the comeback of the day, battling back from two goals down at half-time to beat Bochum 3-2.

Stanislav Sestak's goals after 16 and 44 minutes looked to have put the visitors in control, but Bremen turned the match on its head after the break through Hugo Almeida (54), Naldo (70) and Diego (79).

Hannover eased their relegation worries by inflicting a fourth consecutive Bundesliga defeat on Cologne to move level on 32 points with their opponents.

Leon Andreasen's first-half brace proved enough to secure all three points for the hosts, who went into the match six points clear of the drop zone.

Milivoje Novakovic's strike two minutes after the interval gave the visitors hope of a comeback but it was not to be as they went down 2-1.

Finally, Karlsruhe remain bottom but boosted their survival hopes with a 1-0 win at mid-table Bayer Leverkusen thanks to Sebastian Langkamp's goal 18 minutes from time.