On the day after their 0-2 home defeat to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the Werder players appeared somewhat down in the mouth: “This defeat is a very disappointing one for us,” explained team captain Frank Baumann following the Wednesday morning session. But attention has already been turned to the task against Hertha BSC Berlin on Saturday, 01.11.2008. “The defeat yesterday is something that we had to deal with through the night last night but now we need to concentrate fully on the game on Saturday.”

As usual following a match, the players involved in the game against Leverkusen went through a programme of regeneration whilst the rest were involved in a more intensive session in a small group. Amongst that small gathering there was the returning Tim Wiese. The German international had been out of action recently following a muscle sinew tear to his thigh but he has high hopes of being available again for the game on Saturday. There are still question marks over the possible involvement of Pizarro, Fritz, Diego and now also Torsten Frings, Hugo Almeida and Per Mertesacker.

Daniel Jensen is once again out of the reckoning for the tie: “I have an infection in the ligaments within the Achilles tendon. The healing process could take quite some time but I don’t know yet exactly how long. The doctors told me that I will need to be patient, but patience is something that I lack. There are times when it feels like I have knives jabbing into my Achilles tendon. I have been given an injection by a specialist from Hanover and hope that things start to move along now,” explained the Danish international on the severity of his condition.