Portuguese international Hugo Almeida turned from hero to villain Sunday as he scored a hat-trick for Werder Bremen in his side's 3-0 Bundesliga victory against St Pauli, but was then sent off for elbowing an opponent.

In the later game Sunday, Cologne were held to a 1-1 draw at home by VfL Wolfsburg to remain in the relegation zone.

Germany striker Lukas Podolski was lucky not to be sent off midway through the first half after a kick into the stomach of Wolfsburg's striker Edin Dzeko.

Milivoje Novakovic scored the opening goal for Cologne in the 51st minute after Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio failed to hold onto a 35-metre free-kick from Petit.

Substitute Cicero equalized with a spectacular overhead kick in the 81st minute - four minutes after coming on.

The draw sees Cologne move to 16th place in the table on 12 points, while Wolfsburg remain 13th on 16 points.

In the earlier game Almeida opened the scoring after just 52 seconds after receiving a defence-splitting pass. He added another in the 20th minute and secured his hat-trick in the 64th minute.

With ten minutes to go though the striker allowed himself to be provoked by Carlos Zambrano and elbowed his opponent. He was shown a straight red.

In the last minute St Pauli were also reduced to 10 men as Markus Thorandt was sent off for a rough tackle on Torsten Frings.