Werder are ready for the home straight. “Now we’re coming into a time where you don’t have to think about things too much. We should win this home game if we want to achieve our goal,” said Florian Kohfeldt. Following their 3-1 win in Leverkusen and the international break, the Green-Whites want to “return to this be completely in the mood to fight,” he added. Werder face Mainz in the Weserstadion this Saturday afternoon.
Previous meeting: Werder were brought back down to earth following their great start to the season with a 2-1 defeat in Mainz. “It’s brought us back to reality,” said Maximilian Eggestein after the game. A mistake from Niklas Moisander led to Jean-Philippe Mateta putting the home side into the lead before Jean-Philippe Gbamin added another from distance just after half time. Claudio Pizarro got one back for Werder, but it wasn’t enough to take home any points.
The head coach on the game: Despite Mainz struggling for form at the moment, Kohfeldt is sure that they will have “used the break well.” Werder want to avoid a similar situation to the first fixture, when Mainz were intensive in their play and strong in their tackling. “They’ll be foaming at the mouth, they’re well-structured and are dangerous in attack through Jean-Philippe Mateta or Anthony Ujah,” he added.
Squad news: Sebastian Langkamp is fit to play again after a shoulder injury and three weeks out. Claudio Pizarro is out for the game with a thigh injury, but could be fit for the mid-week game against Schalke. Yuya Osako, who returned to training a few weeks ago but suffered another setback this week, will also miss the game. Nuri Sahin is suspended after picking up five yellow cards, but Milos Veljkovic is available once again after serving his suspension.
The opponents: Mainz come to Bremen having lost their last four away games. This run includes a 6-0 defeat in Munich, in what is their highest Bundesliga loss to date. Their defence is leaky and their attack is stuttering. Mainz have scored 27 goals in 26 games this season and have the worst chance conversion rate in the league at just 10%. The side will be looking to improve these stats at the weekend.
Key player: Karim Onisiwo will have developed some confidence over the last few days, making his comeback for the Austria national side and extending his contract with Mainz for another year. The forward scored a brace in the 3-0 against Schalke earlier this season and will be looking to put in a similar performance against Werder.
The officials: Marco Fritz is the referee for the game. The last Werder game that Fritz refereed was the 1-0 win in Hannover earlier this season. Dominik Schaal and Marcel Pelgrim are the linesmen, and the fourth official is Johan Pfeifer. The video assistant referees are Tobias Welz and Tobias Reichel.
