VfL Bochum vs Werder Bremen preview: Can Bochum claim their first points?
Bochum will attempt to claim their first points of the season when they face a Werder Bremen side who have been a must-watch this season.
Photo: OneFootball
Vfl Bochum
Bochum are the only team in the Bundesliga that are yet to claim a point this season. In their opening four league matches, they have conceded 14 goals, including seven on matchday three against Bayern Munich.
After losing to Bayern, Thomas Reis' side were presented with another tricky encounter last weekend when they to Europa-Park Stadion to face Freiburg. Although they competed well against Christian Streich's side, they ultimately fell to a fourth consecutive defeat following Vincenzo's Grifo second half strike.
As a result of their poor start to the season, Bochum are currently rooted at the foot of the Bundesliga table ahead of their first meeting with Werder Bremen since March 2010.
The hosts enter Saturday's contest with won only one of their last six home Bundesliga games, while they have only failed to find the net in four of those encounters. Although early in the season, Bochum will believe they need to pick up points in their next two matches against newly-promoted Bremen and Schalke.
Team News
Bochum are unable to call upon the services of Danilo Soares, Paul Grave, Saidy Janko and Konstantinos Stafylidis who are all ruled out due to injury issues.
Bochum
Bremen have impressed and entertained in their return to the top-flight after collecting five points from their opening four Bundesliga games, which have yielded 20 goals.
After beginning the campaign with consecutive 2-2 draws against Wolfsburg and Stuttgart, Ole Werner's side pulled off a sensational comeback against Dortmund. Despite trailing 2-0 in the 89th minute, goals from Lee Buchanan, Niklas Schmidt and Oliver Burke helped Bremen claim a memorable victory.
They attempted to claim back-to-back wins last weekend when they played host to Eintracht Frankfurt. After Mario Götze opened the scoring for the visitors, Werder hit back with two quick goals from Anthony Jung and Leonardo Bittencourt. However, Randal Kolo Muani and Jesper Lindstrøm grabbed a goal a piece to help Frankfurt retake the lead before half time lead. Djibril Sow added a fourth after the restart, and although Niclas Füllkrug halved the deficit from the spot in stoppage time, Bremen fell to their first defeat of the season.
Although Werner will be looking for an improvement from his defence, he will be pleased by the fact that his side have scored at least two goals in all five of their competitive games this term.
Having avoided defeat in all three of their away matches in all competitions this season, Bremen will be confident of extending that unbeaten run against a Bochum side still searching for their first points of the season.
Team News
Leonardo Bittencourt will miss out after sustaining an injury in last weekend's contest, and he will join Jean-Manuel Mbom on the sidelines.
