SV Werder Bremen will travel to the Signal Iduna Park to take on Borussia Dortmund, accompanied by 8,500 travelling fans. Friday’s matchup is always a standout for Ole Werner, as he explained how he and his team are eagerly anticipating the late kick-off on Friday (20:30 CEST). “It’s the away game you look forward to all year long, since the atmosphere there is just incredible. It’s the biggest ground in the league,” explained Werder’s head coach in the press conference before Friday’s clash.
The Green-Whites will look back fondly on last year’s encounter, as they managed to turn the game around and snatched a last-gasp win. “There’s always an underdog that can cause problems for the favourites with a good performance,” said Werner, before stressing that Werder need to focus on their own game to perform to the best of their ability on Friday. It’s important to be ready “in case the opposition give you a chance to strike.” After all, Werner believes that there are areas to exploit in every defence, even with the individual quality Dortmund possess. He went on to say that exploiting these weaknesses would be the team’s focus in possession.
SVW’s head coach has once again been forced into rotating his starting XI for the game against Dortmund. Joining defenders Amos Pieper and Niklas Stark on the injury list are Naby Keïta and Jiri Pavlenka. Michael Zetterer will replace the latter between the sticks after an exceptional performance in the friendly against St. Pauli. Werner expressed that this friendly was an important opportunity to give the players who weren’t on international duty some match practice and, at the same time, let them play in unfamiliar roles. “We didn’t do much team training,” said Werner in reference to the small training group and added, “It’s really a case of giving the guys out there on the pitch a foundation that they can build on, especially in terms of fitness. They all did pretty well.”
The fact that Friday’s game will be the first reunion with Niclas Füllkrug is of minor importance to Werner. “I’m looking forward to seeing him again, because I enjoyed working with him. It’ll be the same for everyone,” said Werner. “But important points are at stake for both sides. That’s why it doesn’t matter too much to me that he’s playing.” For Werner, Füllkrug’s involvement in the game is only important with regard to Dortmund’s style of play. “Dortmund are a very flexible team. They like switching things around up top. In spite of that, it goes without saying that they’ll try to play to Niclas’ strengths. They’ll look to put us under pressure by playing a lot more long balls as a result, which they didn’t really do in the past.”
