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Florian Kohfeldt has been impressed by his team's mental strength (Photo: nordphoto).
preliminary report
Thursday, 19.09.2019 / 18:05

Florian Kohfeldt’s team fought hard to take six points from their last two games. Despite early setbacks, Kohfeldt’s side have bounced back just in time for their latest challenge. Werder will face RB Leipzig on Saturday, 21.09.2019 at 17:30 CEST. The head coach admires the undefeated league leaders who “dominated” current champions Bayern Munich at times last weekend. Nevertheless, the Werderaner know that they want, and can, beat any team in the league. The goal is clear: Werder will go for the win!  

The squad: The injury crisis at Werder has been well-documented. Although the Green-Whites have to deal with the long-term absence of a variety of players including Yuya Osako, two potential starters in Milot Rashica and Maximilian Eggestein could make their return, along with Philipp Bargfrede. Nuri Sahin is suspended for the match following his two yellow cards in the previous game. But, these injuries won’t stop Florian Kohfeldt. “We have to accept the situation as it is,” explained the head coach. Werder have shown that they can still score with a depleted squad. “The boys are developing this mentality of wanting to tackle any adversity,” says Kohfeldt. The team will seek to demonstrate this strength on the pitch on Saturday.

 

Kohfeldt: "We need to have faith"

The Werder legend scored the winner two minutes before full time (Photo: nordphoto).

The last match between the two sides: It’s the last home game of the season, and with a victory against third-place Leipzig there is still a chance for Werder to qualify for the Europa League, as long as VfL Wolfsburg lose to FC Augsburg. However, RB Leipzig also want a win in order to achieve their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. At first, it looked like Werder would see out a victory. After a foul in the box by Stefan Ilsanker on Milot Rashica in the 35th minute, the Kosovan stepped up to the spot and buried his shot into the Leipzig net to make it 1-0 to the hosts. However, after Bruma missed a penalty in the 54th minute, Leipzig began to pile on the pressure, eventually culminating in an 86th minute equaliser. But when Werder called out for a hero, Claudio Pizarro answered. Only two minutes later, the Peruvian had a crack from 18 meters and scored magnificently. Despite the three points the goal ensured, Werder narrowly missed out on the Europa League as Wolfsburg defeated Augsburg. However, the feel-good factor that the win brought still remains.     

 

The head coach on the match: Florian Kohfeldt is well aware of the high standard of play that games against RB Leipzig involve. “You know that you have to be alert from the start and get up to speed quickly,” the coach explains. Since being appointed as Leipzig’s head coach, Julian Nagelsmann has “introduced a lot of positive and good things.” However, the 36-year-old believes he knows how to stop the fast counter-attacking play of RB Leipzig. “We need to have faith in our passing game. The mentality we need to bring to the pitch is: We also know how to play football well and we can beat anyone with our high-calibre passing play.

Big game mentality and a coaching clash

RB Leipzig vs SV Werder will be a battle of the Bundesliga's youngest coaches (Photo: nordphoto)

Advantage Kohfeldt: In big clashes like this, experience is key. Both teams have it in abundance with players like Theodor Gebre Selassie and Davy Klaassen set to feature for Werder, and Peter Gulasci for the away side. The Leipzig goalkeeper currently holds the best statistics in the league in terms of shots saved with a hefty figure of 83%. On the sidelines, however, it's a bit of a different outlook as the Bundesliga's youngest two head coaches in Florian Kohfeldt and Julian Nagelsmann get set to face off. After the first two meetings between the two coaches each finished in a 1-1 draw, it was Kohfeldt who took home the spoils in their most recent encounter. In doing so, Kohfeldt cemented his record against Nagelsmann, having never played another Bundesliga coach more often without losing. Now the Leipzig coach, who is four years younger than Kohfeldt, will visit the wohninvest WESERSTADION with his team as the current league leaders. But, this will not phase Kohfeldt, as he looks to continue his good form against his Leipzig counterpart.

 

Mentality a big plus: Both fixtures between the pair last season fall in to the category of "emotional rollercoasters.” Despite giving up a 1-0 lead each time in both of their previous matches against Leipzig, Florian Kohfeldt's team fought back to earn themselves three important points. This time out they will need not just their more experienced players like Davy Klaassen, Leonardo Bittencourt and Niclas Füllkrug to bring a strong mentality to the team, but also the younger individuals in the squad. Against Union Berlin, Füllkrug won 45% of his 29 duels with Union defenders – a strong return for the striker. They will need to bring this mentality to the Leipzig game as well, if they want to win.

The officials: Tobias Stieler will referee the game, with Dr. Matthias Jöllenbeck and Christian Gittelmann supporting him as linesmen. The fourth official is Jan Neitzel-Petersen and the VAR team will be composed of Tobias Welz and Rafael Foltyn.

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