The grind never stops for SV Werder. After the game against Leverkusen on Saturday evening, the Green-Whites are back in action already on Wednesday (30th October, 18:00 CET) for a DFB-Pokal second-round clash with SC Paderborn 07. At the press conference ahead of the match against the second-tier side, head coach Ole Werner was certain that the fans can look forward to an entertaining game.
The current Pokal season seems to be something of a throwback. In 2022, SVW won comfortably at Energie Cottbus to set up a second-round tie at SC Paderborn 07. The Green-Whites were beaten on penalties by the second-tier side on that occasion, and will now be hoping to banish those memories and create new ones. “We want to play better and get through to the next round,” said head coach Ole Werner. “The game two years ago won’t have too big of an effect, because there will be a lot of players out there who weren’t involved back then.”
Having played the underdog role against champions Leverkusen, the Green-Whites are now of course the favourites as the team from the higher division. Werner though is looking at the clash against the 2. Bundesliga’s third-placed side from a different perspective. “I’m not thinking any differently, because anyone can win in the cup,” explained the coach. “The team that wins the game will go through to the next round, and we want to be that team.”
Centre-back Amos Pieper will also be hoping that Werder progress, as he is serving the final game of his DFB-Pokal suspension. The 26-year-old misses out following his red card in last season’s defeat to Viktoria Köln. Niklas Stark (muscular problems), Jens Stage (calf) and Skelly Alvero (knee) are also unavailable. SVW will therefore have to make at least one personnel change. “We’re doing okay in terms of rhythm, because there’s enough time between the games that young and healthy people can cope with it,” smiled Werner. “It does sometimes happen though that we decide to pick particular players for particular games based on the opponent or the individual player’s rhythm.”
???? Team news ahead of #SCPSVW:
— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) October 28, 2024
Stark, Alvero, Stage and Pieper (suspended) will all be unavailable for Wednesday's DFB-Pokal game against SC Paderborn. #werderpic.twitter.com/S6J7sUxSfX
Our last four games with SCP have seen 22 goals scored, which suggests that we could be in for some entertainment on Tuesday evening. All the ingredients for that sort of game are there. “They have been playing good, attacking football for several years now and won't see any reason to hide. We’ll have to be prepared for that,” said Werner. “We’ll have to put in a great performance to make the difference in quality show. We’ll need to be disciplined off the ball, have good communication and be dangerous in the final third.” His team hasn’t been practising penalty kicks, because, in his experience, Werner has found that they’re better without any rehearsal. Ideally though, it’s fair to say that he would rather not see the game decided from the spot.
