"Logical progression"

A preview of the quarterfinal against Eintracht Frankfurt
Milot Rashica has scored in each of his last six Pokal games (Foto: nordphoto).
preliminary report
Tuesday, 03.03.2020 / 15:57

When the Werder players take to the pitch on Wednesday evening, the Round of 16 tie against Dortmund won’t be fresh in their minds. The 3-2 home victory over BVB was over a month ago now. However, the prognosis for the quarterfinal against Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday (20:45 CET) remains roughly the same. The Green-and-Whites haven’t seen an upturn in their league form since that DFB-Pokal triumph and are still looking to get their season back on track. In the Pokal on the other hand, the situation looks a little brighter. Werder proved in the last round that they are not to be underestimated in cup competitions. “We’re looking forward to it and want to get as far as possible. Our situation in the league doesn’t play any role in this,” Florian Kohfeldt explained in his press conference on Tuesday. The Werder head coach also made special mention the club’s performance in the DFB-Pokal in recent years.

Squad news: Kevin Vogt is back. Two weeks after suffering a knee injury in Leipzig, the central defender has returned to Werder’s squad. “Kevin’s been training since last Friday and is available for the DFB-Pokal,” Kohfeldt confirmed. An appearance for Philipp Bargfrede and Fin Bartels, however, is highly unlikely. It’s still too early for Bargfrede to return and Bartels is still suffering with an adductor injury. Claudio Pizarro is also a doubt for Frankfurt, as the 41-year-old is out with a back problem.

Kohfeldt: "It's where we want to be"

Head coach Florian Kohfeldt wants to celebrate victory and progress to the semifinal (Photo: nordphoto).

Kohfeldt on the game: The team from the Osterdeich are in the DFB-Pokal quarterfinal for the third season in a row. Two years ago, Werder were 2-0 up and were unlucky to go out to Leverkusen after extra time. Last season, we were unlucky to go out to Bayern Munich in the semifinal. In the eyes of Florian Kohfeldt, it’s a “logical progression” that provides an outlook for Werder’s cup run; “quarterfinals, semifinals… we know where we want to be.” The knock-out nature of the competition is cause for Kohfeldt to be cautiously optimistic. “Cup games just feel different. One of the two teams go home with nothing, that’s a situation that we like.” The Werder coach is therefore very optimistic that his team will again "come close to their performance limit" next Wednesday. Although it will be a different game to the clash with BVB, nobody should complain were the outcome to be the same.

Scrappy opener and last-minute-"Rocket"

The last meeting: It was a game that produced what was perhaps Werder’s strangest goal of the season so far. After a through ball from Leonardo Bittencourt, Joshua Sargent’s shot ricocheted back off Frankfurt stopper Frederik Rönnow. The ball fell to Bittencourt, who was only able to hit the bar, before Davy Klaassen slotted home the rebound. Unfortunately though, Bremen were unable to defend the 1-0 lead. After Frankfurt scored two unanswered goals through Sebastian Rode and André Silva, Milot Rashica equalized late on to rescue a point. A draw on Wednesday won’t be possible, the only the thing that counts is going through.

Earlier in the year, Klaassen scored the opener against Eintracht (photo: nordphoto).

‘Rocket’ record: Milot Rashica’s relationship with the DFB-Pokal reads like something out of Romeo and Juliet. Werder’s number 7 has scored in each of his last six Pokal games, thereby setting a new club record. Rashica is almost at the top of the goal scoring table amongst Werder’s competition as well. Only Robert Lewandowski has scored more goals (9) in the competition since January 2019.

Poor run: Werder’s attack are without a goal in their last eight Bundesliga games. But this has hardly been a problem in the Pokal. Kohfeldt’s team have scored the most goals in the competition (31) since the beginning of last season.

Match officials: Felix Zwayer from Berlin will officiate the match. The 38-year-old will be supported on the sidelines by Thorsten Schiffner and Marco Achmüller.  Robert Kempter is the fourth official, while Christian Dingert and Frederick Assmuth are the video assistant referees.

 

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