Wiese Out For Leverkusen Tie

First Team
Wednesday, 31.01.2007 / 07:53

When Werder Bremen and Bayer 04 Leverkusen clash at the BayArena on Wednesday evening, it will be the meeting of two of the Bundesliga’s in form teams. Werder went into the winter break on the back of four wins in a row and started in 2007 with a 3:0 win against Hanover 96.

When Werder Bremen and Bayer 04 Leverkusen clash at the BayArena on Wednesday evening, it will be the meeting of two of the Bundesliga’s in form teams. Werder went into the winter break on the back of four wins in a row and started in 2007 with a 3:0 win against Hanover 96. It’s a similar tale for Bayer who have picked up 13 points from their last five games. During advent they picked up three wins against Cottbus (3:1), Hertha and Dortmund (both 2:1) whilst drawing 0:0 in Bielefeld. The recond round started with a bang for Leverkusen in Aachen. A muffled sigh rang around the terraces at the Weser Stadium as the result from the Tivoli reached Bremen – “The scoreboard stated ‘2:3’ after Bayer had at one point been 2:0 down and Aachen were still a goal to good at half time.

 

Bayer would appear to be more comfortable on their travels than they are in front of their own fans. Bayer are currently in fourth place in the away table but only eighth in the home game rankings. Werder have only managed six wins from 26 appearances in Leverkusen whether at the old Haberland-Stadium or the new BayArena, Bayer winning on eleven occasions. The last meeting between the two under the ‘Bayer-Cross’ took place last March and finished 1:1 with gaosl from Torsten Frings (pen.) and Dimitri Berbatov.

 

Lucky first round win for Werder

 

“We’ve always had interesting ties in Leverkusen. They are a strong side and will put up a tough battle against us”, remarked Werder boss Thomas Schaaf. “We know we can prove ourselves against them though and we’re looking forward to doing so.” At the very latest since their last meeting, Thomas Schaaf and his men will be well aware of just how strong Levekusen are. The 2:1 win with goals from Klose and Almeida can only be described as ‘Lucky’. It was to prove a typical game for Bayer in the first half of this season which was mainly spent in the bottom half of the table. Their burst of energy in December saw Bayer pull themselves into sixth place and there they stand at the moment.

 

Schaaf knows: “They want to work their way further up the table”. Bayer’s goal is to get back into European football again,l where they have held their own this season. Bayer and Werder are the only two German clubs still representing the Bundesliga in the UEFA Cup. Leverkusen reached the last sixteen thanks to a strong group finish against Besiktas Istanbul. Now English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers await them.

 

Leverkusen are all too familiar with so called ‘English Weeks’ such as this one. Thomas Schaaf sees the short three day recuperation period since the last, less than perfect, performance as more of a chance than a strain: “We can deal with the rhythm very well – it’s not a physical problem at all and now we can add to the good start we made, under difficult circumstances, and improve on that.”

 

Weise out – Reinke in

 

Werder will have to make do without their first choice keeper Tim Wiese. The keeper has been suffering from thigh problems since the Hanover game. Andreas Reinke will fill the gap between the posts having trained well on Tuesday. Thomas Schaaf is not at all worried that the personnel situation could weaken his team: “Andi played his part during the preparations. He has plenty of experience and will have no problems.” Reike has only started one game so far this season, against Chelsea in London in the Champions League. So far in his career the 39 year old keeper has played 225 Bundesliga matches, winning the title with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1998 and in 2004 with Werder.

 

The following 18 man squad made the trip to Leverkusen on Tuesday afternoon:

Reinke, Vander, Pasanen, Naldo, Wome, Niemeyer, Vranjes, Fritz, Rosenberg, Diego, Klose, Hunt, Jensen, Frings, Almeida, Borowski, Schulz, Mertesacker.

 

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