There was one positive on a disappointing evening in the DFB-Pokal for Werder at Paderborn. That was 17-year-old defender Fabio Chiarodia’s cup debut. He became the youngest player ever to feature for the club in this competition and put in a strong performance too. “It was definitely one of the biggest positives from the game,” said head coach Ole Werner at Friday’s press conference.
Niklas Stark was forced off in the 73rd minute with the score at 2-1. The injured centre-back was replaced by Chiarodia, 10 years his junior. Werder went on to equalise and that took the game to extra time, allowing Chiarodia more minutes on the pitch. Coming on in such a difficult period of the game and performing so well was impressive for SVW’s head coach. “He certainly wouldn’t have been expecting to come on at centre-half. He did an excellent job, especially for his age.”
Wednesday night was Chiarodia’s first appearance of the season and he will now be hoping for more games, according to Werner. “He’s definitely progressed more over the last few months. We need to keep developing him step-by-step. I don’t want to rule out a place in the starting XI for him at some point this season.”
A spot in the starting XI this weekend depends on the availability of his teammates at the back. It’s not yet clear if Marco Friedl, Niklas Stark and Christian Groß will be able to play.
