Hoffenheim retains the upper hand at Werder Bremen in a thrilling finish

Bülter scores in added time

Despite the starting eleven debut of top purchase Naby Keita, Werder Bremen suffered their next defeat in the Bundesliga and are now stuck in the bottom of the table. After a turbulent final phase, the Green-Whites deservedly lost 2:3 (1:2) against TSG Hoffenheim on Sunday evening. Keita, who came from Liverpool FC before the season, played for around an hour but was unable to make any impact.

Hoffenheim, on the other hand, recovered well from the 3-1 defeat against Borussia Dortmund and moved past Bayern Munich into fourth place in the table, at least for one night. In front of 41,000 spectators in the Weserstadion, Maximilian Beier (8th minute), Grischa Prömel (29th) and Marius Bülter (90th + 2) scored the goals for the guests. Romano Schmid (17th) and Jens Stage (90th + 1) scored the equalizer for Werder, but in the end that was not enough.

Keita’s first appearance on the Weser had been long-awaited from the start. The signing of the 28-year-old football virtuoso caused great euphoria among the Green-Whites’ supporters in the summer. After years of sadness with relegation in 2021 as a negative highlight, the transfer should provide a sense of optimism. But before the first test match, Keita injured his adductors and missed almost the entire preparation and the start of the season.

After two short appearances against Cologne and Darmstadt, Keita was finally fully fit for the game against Hoffenheim. The fans greeted the Guinea national players frenetically; no name was shouted as loudly as Keita’s when the line-up was read out.

But the star purchase, hyped up to be a savior, could not yet meet expectations in his first long appearance. Keita noticeably lacked connection to the game of his new team. He also repeatedly had problems with Hoffenheim’s robustness.

Ole Werner had already warned before the game that expectations were too high. “It is not one player who is responsible for us playing a good game,” the Werder coach said on “Sky”. “He should contribute his qualities and can help us with his experience. When it comes to voting, maybe not everything will work out from the first minute.”

And the Bremen coach was right. Since his other changes – some of which were forced by injuries – compared to the 2:4 in Darmstadt a week ago did not work, the hosts were behind 1:2 at the break. Especially defensively, Bremen continued their weak performance a week earlier. The Bremen defense didn’t look good in both the early 1-0 by Beier and the 2-1 by Prömel. The celebration of Schmid’s 1-1 draw didn’t last long.

Keita came out of the locker room after the break despite his poor performance, but after another quarter of an hour it was over for him. The great hope left the pitch with a disappointed expression on his face. Werder then pushed vehemently for an equalizer and made it 2-2 through Stage in stoppage time. But Hoffenheim countered just a minute later and secured the three points thanks to Bülter’s goal.

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