Werder face surprise package Wolfsburg

Preview to the Wolfsburg game
Davy Klaassen and Werder will want to get their third win of the Rückrunde on Sunday (Photo: nordphoto).
preliminary report
Friday, 01.03.2019 / 17:52

Wolfsburg are a team in form, winning three of their last five games. A look at the table also suggests that Werder are underdogs for the game on Sunday (18:00 CET), with the hosts fifth at the moment. However, Florian Kohfeldt pointed out in his press conference before the game that Werder have picked up just as many points as Wolfsburg so far in the Rückrunde, with ten. 2,500 Green-Whites fans are expected to travel to the game, with Werder looking to add to this total.

Previous meetings: Wolfsburg visited the Weserstadion on a Friday evening earlier this season and went away with nothing. Davy Klaassen, who scored against Stuttgart last weekend, put Werder in front in the first half with his first home goal for the club. Wolfsburg then went on to have some chances in the second half, but Werder remained resilient. Claudio Pizarro then played Johannes Eggestein through on goal in the 86th minute and the young striker kept his cool to make it 2-0.

 

Johannes Eggestein scored his first ever Bundesliga goal against Wolfsburg earlier this season (Photo: nordphoto).

The boss on the game: Florian Kohfeldt said that Wolfsburg will have “a clear plan and defend very well as a collective.” He also praised the work of Bruno Labbadia: “Bruno has made it so they’re a team on the pitch. They have a good mix of midfield and offensive players. They’re also the team that have the most position changes in a game”. He added that Werder need to “play with a lot of heart and defend well. I think it’ll be a difficult game, but it’s possible to get points there.”

Squad news: Werder have had a long and intense week of training. Sebastian Langkamp is available for the game, despite missing a couple of training sessions. Philipp Bargfrede and Davy Klaassen trained individually on Tuesday and Wednesday, but both players are also ready to play. Martin Harnik could be back in the squad for the first time since his injury against Dortmund after doing well in training. The game comes too soon for Yuya Osako, who is still out with a back injury.

Milot Rashica has been starting in attack for Werder recently (Photo: nordphoto).

The opponents: Wolfsburg are one of the surprise packages of this season. The Wolves only stayed in the Bundesliga due to winning the relegation play-off in the last two seasons, but they sit in the lofty heights of fifth at the moment. Bruno Labbadia has built a team that wants to get into Europe this season, after beating the likes of Mönchengladbach, Frankfurt, Leipzig and Hertha Berlin this season. Wolfsburg are out of the DFB-Pokal however, slipping to a 1-0 defeat against RB Leipzig.

Key players: The man who’s getting the goals for The Wolves is Wout Weghorst. The striker signed from AZ Alkmaar in the summer and has settled into life in the Bundesliga well, with nine goals and three assists in 23 games. The 26-year-old describes himself as an “old-fashioned striker” and is 6 feet 4 inches tall. He’s also dangerous from the spot, having scored four penalties this season. He made his debut for the Netherlands last year, but he’s yet to score a goal for his country.

The officials: Daniel Siebert will referee the game, with Lasse Koslowski and Jan Seidel his assistants. The fourth official is Christof Günsch, and the video assistants are Markus Schmidt and Alexander Sather.

 
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