Werder Bremen vs. Freiburg preview: Hosts targeting second straight win

Werder Bremen

Bremen are currently sitting in 10th spot after winning two, drawing two and losing one of their five league matches. They kicked off the Bundesliga season with consecutive draws, before they recorded a narrow away win over Mainz. Unfortunately for Bremen, that narrow victory was followed by a heavy 5-0 defeat in their home clash against Bayern Munich.

They looked to be heading towards another loss in last Sunday’s meeting with Hoffenheim, conceding three goals in the opening 12 minutes to leave them with a mountain to climb. However, the complexion of the contest changed when Stanley Nsoki was shown a straight red card in the 18th minute. Julián Malatini quickly pulled a goal back before Jens Stage scored twice to send the teams into the break on level terms. After the break, Stage netted his third and Bremen’s fourth to complete a remarkable comeback and extend his side’s unbeaten away run to five league matches.

Ole Werner’s charges will now return to the Weserstadion, where they have played out a goalless draw with Borussia Dortmund and lost 5-0 to Bayern. With Bremen searching for their first home win of the season, they may be able to take confidence from the fact they won 3-1 in their most recent meeting with Freiburg in January.

Team News

Senne Lynen, Niklas Stark, Justin Njinmah and Milos Veljkovic are all ruled out through injury.

Freiburg

Freiburg head into the weekend in seventh position after winning three and losing two of their opening five league matches.  After kicking off with a win over Stuttgart, Freiburg went on to lose 2-0 against Bayern in their second game of the Bundesliga season. Julian Schuster’s side bounced back from that defeat to claim back-to-back wins over Bochum and Heidenheim. Unfortunately for Freiburg, they were swiftly stopped in their tracks by a heavy 3-0 defeat in their recent home meeting with newly-promoted St. Pauli.

After suffering their first home defeat of the season, Freiburg will now head on their travels for the final round of fixtures before the international break. The Breisgau-Brasilianer have won three of their previous four meetings with Bremen. However, they have won just one of their last six Bundesliga away games against Saturday’s opponents. Their only away victory in that period took place in April 2023 when they recorded a narrow 2-1 victory.

Team News

The visitors are unable to call upon Merlin Röhl, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Kenneth Schmidt and Manuel Gulde.