Nuremberg came from behind to secure a 3-2 victory against Stuttgart on the final day of the Bundesliga.
Goals from Per Nilsson, Sebastian Polter and Tomas Pekhart were sandwiched between a Kevin de Bruyne brace to give the hosts a narrow win.
It took five minutes for the first opportunity of the match when Aleksandar Ignjovski hit a long-range shot for Bremen, but his effort sailed wide of the far post.
Nuremberg had a chance in the 10th minute with a lovely passing move taking them from their own penalty area to the edge of the visitors' box, but Niklas Stark's strike from the right failed to hit the target.
Markus Mendler placed a shot just wide two minutes later, before Robert Mak's effort from distance flew over.
Bremen responded with two quickfire chances, first when Nils Petersen hit an effort horribly off target, before De Bruyne's low drive forced a smart save from Raphael Schafer.
However, Bremen did manage to take the lead eight minutes before the break when De Bruyne smashed a shot from outside the box into the bottom corner to put the away team 1-0 to the good.
Bremen could have doubled their lead before half time, but neither De Bruyne nor Joseph Akpala could hit the target.
However, the hosts drew level on the hour mark when Nilsson found the top corner of the net from inside the box.
Nine minutes from time, Nuremberg turned the game on its head when a Polter header found the back of the net from a Mak corner.
They looked to have settled the match two minutes from time when Pekhart added a third from close range.
However, Bremen gave themselves a glimmer of hope a minute later when De Bruyne fired across goal to reduce the deficit.
Matt Cotton
