Werder Bremen suffered a narrow defeat 2-1 at home to last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night. Midfielder Kevin Möhwald equalised for Werder with a long-range strike (28’) after Raphael Guerreiro’s opener (12’) had given the guests the lead. Marco Reus stepped up to win it for Dortmund late on as he tapped in the rebound after seeing his initial effort kept out by a strong save from Jiri Pavlenka (78’).
Line up and formation: Just three days after the 2-0 defeat away at RB Leipzig, head coach Florian Kohfeldt made to changes to Werder’s starting XI for the return to the wohninvest WESERSTADION. Yuya Osako and Jean-Manuel Mbom were brought in as Leonardo Bittencourt and Romano Schmid dropped to the bench.
Starting XI: Pavlenka, Groß, Toprak, Friedl, Gebre Selassie, Möhwald, Augustinsson, M. Eggestein, Mbom, Osako, Sargent.
Substitutes: Kapino, Agu, Moisander, Veljkovic, Bittencourt, Erras, Schmid, Chong, Woltemade.
First half highlights:
5th minute: Reyna carries the ball forward on the left hand side for the visitors before sliding a pass across in the direction of 16-year-old Moukoko, who cannot quite connect with Pavlenka already beaten.
12th minute: Goal for Borussia Dortmund, scored by Raphael Guerreiro. Hummels’ shot is blocked leading to a scramble in the box. The ball hits Toprak, before Guerreiro reacts fastest to poke into the net from close range to put the guests ahead.
28th minute: GOAL FOR WERDER! Kevin Möhwald with the equaliser! Osako wins the ball from Akanji’s misplaced pass and plays in Gebre Selassie, who finds Maxi Eggestein on the edge of the box. He tees it up perfectly for Möhwald who steps forward to fire a low shot right into the corner from 17 metres out. A wonderful move and a fine goal!
32nd minute: Groß plays with fire as he attempts to direct Jude Bellingham’s ball across the box out for a corner but puts it onto his own post instead.
41st minute: A Marco Reus is whipped into the Werder area and Akanji reacts first to deflect an effort towards the Werder net. Pavlenka is on hand however to parry to safety with a superb reflex save!
43rd minute: Left-footed Augustinsson proves he can also put his weaker foot to good use as he aims a curling effort from 15 metres out towards the far corner and forces Bürki into a flying save.
Second half highlights:
50th minute: Reus is played in and carries it to the byline, where he fires a sharp cross towards the far post that just eludes Moukoko from close range.
53rd minute: Augustinsson's cross from the left reaches Gebre Selassie, who skips past Guerreiro and attempts a header from near the penalty spot, but Bürki is on his toes to save.
58th minute: Good passing play from Dortmund leads to Bellingham flicking the ball through to Jadon Sancho. The Englishman finishes past Pavlenka from the left but has his celebrations cut short by the offside flag.
72nd minute: Pavlenka is again called into action with a brilliant save, this time parrying a Reus header to safety following Morey’s corner to the near post.
78th minute: Goal for Borussia Dortmund, scored by Marco Reus. Pavlenka brings down Akanji and the ref points to the spot. Werder’s number 1 gets a strong hand to the Borussia captain’s initial effort, but can only watch as Reus follows up to prod home the rebound from close range.
90+6 minute: Final whistle at Osterdeich, with Dortmund narrowly beating Werder to take the three points.
Conclusion: In their first game since Lucien Favre’s dismissal, the team in yellow and black got going quickly and put Werder under pressure from the first minute. Florian Kohfeldt’s side struggled to escape the Dortmund press and fell behind to an early goal by Raphael Guerreiro (12’). Kevin Möhwald brought the scores level with his inch-perfect strike in the 28th minute and with it, brought the Green-Whites back into the game. Werder rode their luck as Christian Groß’s misplaced clearance cannoned off his own post shortly after, but Kohfeldt’s team kept it tight up until the penalty incident that enabled Reus to win all three points for the guests and ensure that SVW came away empty handed.
