Last weekend Werder Bremen conceded six goals in the bitter defeat against Stuttgart. But in their home match against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday the defence held without giving up a goal. "During the week we really worked intensively in getting rid of our mistakes from the past weeks. The team did that well today," said manager Klaus Allofs about Bremen’s showing. Defensive boss Per Mertesacker was also happy about the team’s defensive performance. "I will not be hosting a party tonight because we didn’t allow a goal. But it was a clear improvement to the six goals allowed in Stuttgart," said Mertesacker.

Torsten Frings also said the Green-Whites' defensive togetherness made the difference in the clear improvement. "We saw today that we don’t allow many chances when we all play together," said the Werder captain. "It’s only because we all worked together that we kept a clean sheet. We all went where it hurts, but if that doesn’t happen then someone is always open." Especially happy about not having allowed a goal for the second time in the Bundesliga this season was keeper Tim Wiese. "Of course it was very nice to have not allowed a goal," said the German international glovesman. One big reason that SVW was able to keep Frankfurt and their top striker Theofanis Gekas without a goal was returnee Petri Pasanen, who played as right back, as well as a drastic improvement by Mikael Silvestre.

The return of Pasanen provided additional stability for the defensive unit. "We had more security at the outside positions, that really helped the team," said Allofs, who was not at all surprised with the good performance of Silvestre. "I was surprised that he had played so poorly in the last couple weeks," said Allofs of the Frenchman. "He did a lot of things much better and seemed more fresh physically. He had a mistake-free match. But he also had the necessary support today which had been missing in the past matches where he came into trouble." Head coach Thomas Schaaf added about Silvestre: "He came to me after the game and said ‘It was better today.’ That shows that he has a clear idea about himself and his situation and I think it’s excellent that he did not come off the pitch and say that everything was perfect but thanked others for the game," said the 49-year-old coach, who also was happy with the reaction of the spectators. "I would like to thank them for that," said Schaaf.