Werder Bremen and Schalke have contested in 92 games in the Bundelsiga. The duel with Schalke is one of the real classics of the German top flight. The fixture repeats itself on...
Werder Bremen and Schalke have contested in 92 games in the Bundelsiga. The duel with Schalke is one of the real classics of the German top flight. The fixture repeats itself on...
Werder Bremen and Schalke have contested in 92 games in the Bundelsiga. The duel with Schalke is one of the real classics of the German top flight. The fixture repeats itself on Saturday 15th August (15:30 CEST), as Werder meet Schalke at the Weser-Stadion on the first day of the 2015/2016 Bundesliga season. It will be the fourth time these two teams face off as opponents in the opening fixture of the season. Werder, having won the last two, currently have the upper hand.
WERDER.DE looks back at the opening day fixtures against the Royal Blues and looks ahead to matchday 1.

In the 1976/1977 season the two teams met each other in the opening game for the first time. Werder lost 3-2 at the hands of Schalke in the Gelsenkirchen Parkstadion in front of around 27,000 spectators. Three years after his move to SVW, Dieter Burdenski stood between the Werder goalposts. Bremen ended the season in an unsatisfactory 11th place, while Schalke would be runners up. Remarkably, with Rudi Assauer in charge, Werder became the third team in Bundesliga history to have a full time manager. Assauer stayed until the 1980/1981 season before moving to the Royal Blues where he found himself in one capacity or another until 2006.
In the 1985/1986 season, nine years later, Schalke were once again drawn as opening day opponents for SVW. The game was played on 9th August 1985 at 20:00 CEST and on this occasion, Werder were able to better assert themselves on Schalke. Dieter Burdenski was still in goal for SVW and other well known players at the time included Thomas Schaaf and Dieter Eilts, as the team went on to secure a 1-0 win under manager Otto Rehhagel, in front of 31,000 spectators. It was the start of an outstanding season for Werder, but unfortunately they were unable to cap it off with the championship title. Bayern pipped Bremen to the title on the last day of the season. SVW ended up finishing as runners up, whilst Schalke finished in 10th place.

In 2004/2005, the third opening-day fixture between the teams would go down in history even before kick-off. As the double winning team from the previous season, Werder were opened the new season on the 6th August 2004. Schalke were guests in Bremen, with arrivals and former Werder players Ailton and Mladen Krstajic in the squad. Thousands of spectators in the stadium and millions of television viewers were simmering with anticipation for the match. But all of a sudden things went dark and the match was delayed for 66 minutes due to a power cut. Nelson Valdez scored in the 83rd minute and therefore scored the latest goal in Bundesliga history (23:14) as Werder sent Schalke back to Gelsenkirchen empty handed. Both sides had an excellent season that year as SV Werder finished in third place, behind Schalke, to seal Champions League qualification.
Now in 2015/16, the record looks positive for the Green-Whites. SV Werder emerged victorious on 38 occasions, with Schalke managing 34 wins and the remaining 20 league matches ending in a draw. Whilst Werder started the season with a nine match winless streak, the team put on an incredible run in the second half of the season and were even fighting for European qualification on the final matchday. FC Schalke 04 also experienced a roller coaster of a season, finishing with qualification to the Europa League. Skripnik's side remain undefeated in pre-season, as well as in the DFB Cup. All good signs ahead of Werder's 04th season opener against Schalke 04!
