Defence was the sore point for a long time in Werder Bremen's game. But chants of "all show in attack and no substance in back" are no longer valid in recent weeks.

The Green-Whites have not only been playing a tremendous offensive football recently, but their defence has made headlines as well. And the numbers are quite impressive. Werder's 2-0 victory at Stuttgart was their fourth straight Bundesliga contest without a goal allowed - following the 0-0 draws against Hanover and in Leverkusen as well as the 3-0 home win over Mainz. And Bremen are unbeaten in their last 12 games while not suffering a single loss on the road this season.

Goalkeeper Tim Wiese has kept his goal clean for the past 529 minutes, something which of course makes the 27-year-old happy. But Wiese put his scoreless streak in the background, saying instead: "Of course, having a clean sheet is always nice. I hope that the streak continues. But really important is that we are winning our games."

Defender Per Mertesacker underlined the positive development of the team looking back over the past successful weeks. "We really compliment one another very good. That is a key to success. And we have a lot of keys that fit at this moment," said Mertesacker. But the German international also admits that the current run is no reason to get overexcited. "We have worked a lot. We are setting up a bit further back and don't run so far forward in the counter, minimising many mistakes. But we have to remain realistic because we are still not yet where we want to be."

Mertesacker said the contest in Stuttgart was still close in the end because Werder failed to use their chances for the decisive third goal. Captain Torsten Frings agreed: "We are very satisfied. We are on a good way, but we still have to play better. For example we did not execute our counter-attacks very well. Then we would have had more calm," said Frings.