After finishing the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign in ninth place, SV Werder Bremen narrowly missed out on a spot in Europe. In a season packed with soaring highs and crushing lows, there was no shortage of emotional moments for the Green-Whites and their supporters. With the campaign now firmly behind us, the fourth and final part of our season review takes a look back at some of 23/24's most memorable matches.
Werder could scarcely have faced a more daunting task on the opening weekend of the season, as they welcomed 33-time Bundesliga champions FC Bayern Munich to the wohninvest WESERSTADION. The Bavarians proved more than worthy of their status as favourites, running out 4-0 winners to leave Werder ahead of only VfL Bochum after the first round of fixtures. Things didn’t get much easier the following week, either, with the Green-Whites falling to a 1-0 defeat at SC Freiburg in what turned out to be Niclas Füllkrug’s final outing for the club.
The team headed into Matchday 3 desperate to put points on the board, and they delivered in convincing fashion. After an early Marvin Ducksch penalty put Werder in front, they never looked like surrendering the lead against Mainz, eventually winning by four goals to nil. “I’m unbelievably happy to have won with a clean sheet,” said a satisfied Marco Friedl after the game. But that triumph was to prove something of a false dawn for SVW, as despite a further home success against 1.FC Köln, they went into Matchday 9’s clash with Union Berlin with just six points from their opening eight games. But a solid team performance – perhaps aided by Rani Khedira’s sending-off on the hour mark – saw Werder emerge with a 2-0 win.
It continued to be an up-and-down period for Ole Werner’s men, who picked up just two points from a tough run of fixtures in their next four games. But defeats against Leverkusen and Stuttgart – the league’s top two by season’s end – were followed by a convincing win over FC Augsburg, which sparked a 7-match unbeaten run. “We gave everything from the 1st to the 95th minute,” said match-winner Marvin Ducksch. The Green-Whites finished the first half of the season in 13th place with 17 points.
Werder’s post-Augsburg winning streak stood at four games when SVW visited the Allianz Arena for arguably the toughest game of the season. But against the odds, an inspired display saw the Green-Whites pick up their first away win of the season, and their first victory over Bayern in 15 years. “Bayern are one of the best teams in the world and you have to be at your best against them – and I’m glad we were today,” said goalscorer Mitchell Weiser.
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— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) January 21, 2024
The unbeaten run would eventually be drawn cruelly to a close amid the club’s 125th anniversary celebrations, with party-poopers Heidenheim handing the Green-Whites a 2-1 defeat. Around this time, the team were persistently hampered by fitness problems and injuries – including long-term absences for Amos Pieper and Niklas Stark, which threatened to disrupt their momentum as the season entered its closing stages. And so it proved that those seven games without defeat were followed by seven without a win. After a formidable start to 2024, the wheels seemed to be coming off.
But by the end of the season, things started to pick up again. Ducksch inspired his side to a 2-1 win over Champions League-chasing Stuttgart, and Werder picked up a further eight points from their final four games. Only goal difference could deny them a place in Europe for next season, and a sixth-place finish in the second half of the season indicates a European place at the end of the 24/25 season is well within SVW’s grasp. “If we look at where we started in the summer, it’s been a very good season,” reflected Ole Werner after his team’s final-day victory over VfL Bochum.
