Hiroshi Kiyotake played a starring role as Nuremberg defeated Hoffenheim 4-2 to move away from the Bundesliga drop zone on Wednesday night.

Kiyotake's free kick was flicked in by Hoffenheim's Sebastian Rudy to put Nuremberg in front after six minutes and the Japan midfielder capped the scoring with his second goal of the season four minutes from time.

Kiyotake cut in from the right before striking a curling effort in off the right post and the 23-year-old admitted he was delighted to score the day after his son's first birthday.

"It was my son's birthday yesterday and I really wanted to score. I'm happy," said Kiyotake, who did a fine job filling in for Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa as Japan beat Oman 2-1 away earlier this month to close in on a place at the 2014 World Cup finals.