Bremen vs. SC Freiburg preview: Can Werder continue improved form?
Freiburg travel north on Saturday afternoon to face Bremen, who are still riding high after a huge away win over Bayern Munich.
Bremen
With three draws and two wins in their last five league games, Werder Bremen are slowly moving away from the relegation conversation. Their recent defensive record has been very strong, having allowed only four goals over this five-game period.
Michael Zetterer doesn’t look to be giving back his starting place in goal to Jiri Pavlenka anytime soon, especially after his stellar performance against Bayern on Matchday 18. Bremen have been far better at home than away this season, but haven’t claimed a victory against Freiburg in their last five meetings.
Ole Werner commented, "We have to defend against long balls, especially in the penalty area. You have to be 100% alert because Freiburg have a very clear plan. It's one of our most demanding tasks."
Team News
Milos Veljkovic is out for at least another week, while Amos Pieper and Leon Opitz are expected to remain unavailable. Naby Keita is off at the AFCON.
In other news, Werder released a club statement on Thursday that states, “SV Werder Bremen have agreed a strategic partnership with a consortium of local investors, which will see a capital injection of €38 million into the club.”
SC Freiburg
Despite playing with only 10 men to end Matchday 18, Roland Sallai’s late goal earned the Breisgau club a big win over Hoffenheim. It hasn’t been the season many fans were hoping for thus far, but Christian Streich has still impressively steered his injury-riddled side to 7th in the table.
Supporters were clamoring for signings and the club came through this week, signing center-back Attila Szalai on loan from Hoffenheim and versatile midfielder Florent Muslija permanently from Paderborn. There’s a chance Szailai could even immediately start in the center defense on Saturday, while Muslija will likely get his chance off the bench.
In his presser, Streich stated, "I didn't see Bremen's game (against Bayern) live. But, it didn't surprise me. Bremen are developing well with good players and they played a brutally good game. I've rarely seen Bayern have such problems in its own stadium."
Team News
Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Philipp Lienhart, Kenneth Schmidt, Max Rosenfelder and captain Christian Günter are out. Ritsu Doan is still away at the Asian Cup, while Manuel Gulde will serve a red-card suspension.