Winning is all that matters

Der Vorbericht zum Mainz-Spiel
Fin Bartels wants to help his team to victory in Mainz (nordphoto).
preliminary report
Friday, 19.06.2020 / 11:51

All eyes on Saturday. At 15:30 CEST, Werder take on Mainz. It will be the Green-Whites’ last away game of the season and the current situation means that it is a must-win. "All that matters is winning the game in Mainz – that’s our focus. We can’t worry about anything else," said Florian Kohfeldt, getting straight to the point. 

Squad news: The head coach has given Kevin Vogt a fifty-fifty chance of being fit to play against Mainz. The 28-year-old had to be taken off with pains in his adductor muscles at half time against Bayern on Tuesday night. Florian Kohfeldt gave a much more positive assessment of Ludwig Augustinsson’s situation – the Swede was left out of Tuesday’s squad as a purely precautionary measure. Aside from those two doubts, Kohfeldt has the same squad as of late available to him for this weekend.

Only a win will do

Kohfeldt wants his team to convert their attitude into a big performance (nordphoto).

Kohfeldt on the game: The pressure is certainly on. Florian Kohfeldt is not trying to disguise this, but the head coach is also confident that his team can rise to the challenge: "We are aware of the situation we’ve put ourselves in with just two games to go. In recent games, however, we have shown that we are capable of taking on this relegation battle. There are no reasons whatsoever to believe that we lack the right mentality. We have to convert all of this into a big performance on the pitch on Saturday. Only one thing matters for us in Mainz: winning." The head coach referred to previous games, where the pressure was also immense: "We managed to play aggressively and put a lot of pressure on the opponents in both Freiburg and Paderborn, without going over the top. We need to have the same attitude against Mainz and I am sure we will show it." 

Previous encounter: The less said about that the better. But here goes: On Matchday 16 of the current season, SV Werder Bremen were beaten 5-0 by Mainz at home in the wohninvest WESERSTADION. The visitors were already four goals up by half time, with Robin Quaison scoring a hat-trick and an own goal from Jiri Pavlenka. In the second half, Jean-Philippe Mateta added a fifth. In short, there are scores to be settled this weekend! 

Pavlenka's 100th appearance

Werder keeper Jiri Pavlenka is set to make his 100th Bundesliga appearance (nordphoto).

100 for Jiri: Werder’s number one is set to reach a milestone in Mainz. So far, Jiri Pavlenka has made 99 Bundesliga appearances, all for SV Werder. No doubt, this will be the last thing on our shotstopper’s mind going into the game. 

Yellow danger: In Kevin Vogt, just one Werder player remains one yellow-card caution away from a suspension. The 28-year-old defender has four yellow cards to his name so far. For Mainz, Jean-Paul Boetius and Leonardo Barreiro Martins are both on four cards for the season.

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