23 points and ten places in the table seperate Werder Bremen and their opponents on Saturday Eintracht Frankfurt. Despite a 4:1 win in the first meeting this season, trainer Thomas Schaaf is expecting a tough task at the weekend.
23 points and ten places in the table seperate Werder Bremen and their opponents on Saturday Eintracht Frankfurt. Despite a 4:1 win in the first meeting this season, trainer Thomas Schaaf is expecting a tough task at the weekend.
23 points and ten places in the table seperate Werder Bremen and their opponents on Saturday Eintracht Frankfurt. Despite a 4:1 win in the first meeting this season, trainer Thomas Schaaf is expecting a tough task at the weekend. "Frankfurt have a good team and have played some good games this season", praised Schaaf. German international Patrick Owomoyela is of a similar opinion: "Against Frankfurt we will be facing a good footballing and athletic side who have played well recently." Werder centre half Frank Fahrenhorst is also aware for the challenge ahead: "Eintracht need the point just as badly as we do. I hope we can pick up where we left off in the second half against Hanover."
A win to make up for lost ground
A win could prove very impportant to Werder with challengers for the Champions League places HSV and Schalke facing each other at the weekend. Some 3,000 Green-White fans are expected to make the trip south to Frankfurt to support their team. "All signs point towards an interesting game with both teams pushing for the points but I believe we will have reason to celebrate come Saturday evening", according to Thomas Schaaf.
Statistics show that Werder can travel to Frankfurt with a great deal of self-confidence. It's six years since the players from the Main-Metropolis managed a win over Werder. From the last seven games, Frankfurt have only picked up one point.
Injury worries
With the race to seal a Champions League spot heating up, Thomas Schaaf is now faced with personnel problems that he could do without. Aside from the long term injured Aaron Hunt (knee tendons), Frank Baumann (torn knee ligaments) and Jelle van Damme (thigh injury) will definately miss the tie. Leon Andreasen and Torsten Frings are also very doubtful. While the Danish Under 21 international is recovering from a back problem, Torsten Frings is suffering from a calf strain. "On a personnel level, Friedhelm Fununkel has similar problems with personnel as I do", commented Schaaf who knows Frankfurt will be possibly without seven of his players.
Johnnie Muldoon
