Hamburger SV moved up to sixth in the Bundesliga thanks to a 3-1 victory over Werder Bremen.

Bruno Labbadia watched his side claim back-to-back league wins for the first time this season, but it was another disappointing afternoon for Bremen, who are just three points above the bottom three.

Hamburg were ahead inside three minutes as Ivo Ilicevic found the space in the box to cut inside before finding the top corner with an unstoppable curling effort.

The early breakthrough gave confidence to the visitors and they dominated for long spells before doubling the lead through Michael Gregoritsch, whose free kick from close to 35 yards took a big deflection off the wall to leave Felix Wiedwald helpless.

Rene Adler came to Hamburg's rescue just before the break to get two strong hands to the ball when Anthony Ujah found the space to meet a cross with a powerful header.

It was a sign of what was to come early in the second half as Bremen piled the pressure on in search of a way back into the match.

The deficit was reduced just after the hour mark as Hamburg failed to fully clear a corner, which allowed an unmarked Ujah to bring down a lobbed ball forward before firing home.

Any hopes of a fightback were quickly dashed as Hamburg wrapped up the win on the counter-attack when Matthias Ostrzolek released Nicolai Muller, who sprinted clear of the defence to pick out the bottom corner.

Despite enjoying long spells on top late on, Bremen were unable to produce another response as Hamburg eased to the final whistle to collect the points.