The Austrian striker, who made his international debut in midweek, scored the decisive goal in the 69th minute and missed several more chances to seal the win.

However, the single goal was enough to end Bremen's disappointing start to the season and earn Thomas Schaaf's side a precious three points and a confidence boost ahead of Wednesday's decisive Champions League qualifier at Dinamo Zagreb.

Neither Nurnberg nor Bremen had made the start to the season they had expected, and both struggled to find a route into this game.

The first half was interrupted all too often for any flow to develop.

One time it was not stopped when perhaps it should have been was when Nurnberg striker Ivan Saenko aimed an elbow at Daniel Jensen right under the nose of the referee, but the incident still went unnoticed.

Robert Vittek struck a shot just wide of the post for the only attempt on goal in the first 45 minutes.

The game could only improve in the second half, but it still took a long time to get going.

Nurnberg coach Hans Meyer tried to give it a kick-start by bringing Zvjezdan Misimovic and Marco Engelhardt in, but it was a change on the other side which made the difference.

Harnik came on for his Bremen debut, and within eight minutes, he had the ball in the back of the net.

He cut in past Dominik Reinhardt and sent his shot low into the far corner beyond the reach of Jaromir Blazek to break the deadlock 20 minutes from time.

Nurnberg tried to react but, with every pass which missed its man, the discontent of the fans became increasingly evident.

Bremen actually had the better chances and could have at least doubled their lead, most notably through Harnik in the last minute, but he did not show the same precision as earlier and Blazek was able to save.