Werder Bremen saved a point in added time at the crisis summit against Gladbach. The euphoric end to an overall bad home game should allow coach Horst Steffen to breathe a sigh of relief – but the Hanseatic League has now been without a win for ten games.
In the 1-1 draw in front of 42,100 fans in the Weserstadion, Haris Tabakovic (61′) shot the ‘Foals’ into the lead, while Keke Topp (90’+4) equalized.
As a result of the draw, Gladbach slipped to twelfth place with 21 points, while Bremen climbed to 14th place with 19 points. The gap to relegation place 16 is only one point.
Two negative series still exist. Bremen is now ten games without a win, Gladbach has been waiting for a three-pointer for four games. The duel was declared to be groundbreaking and was even seen as a kind of final for Werder’s coach Horst Steffen; the pressure on the 56-year-old was immense.
Poor first half
It was clear to everyone that there would be no football treat. The pressure was noticeable on both teams, they started very focused and initially neutralized each other. The aim was to disrupt the opponent’s build-up of the game and prevent an early goal being conceded, and it worked – at the expense of scoring chances.
The Gladbachers had the first. After a corner that was cleared too short, Rocco Reitz took a shot, but his shot from 16 meters landed wide of the goal. A little later, the people of Bremen also registered at the front. During a quick counter-attack, Samuel Mbangula passed the ball to Jusi Njinmah, but he failed from a tight angle past the Gladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas. But that was it from the first half, in which neither team took any risks and was therefore poor in highlights.
Werder comes out of the break with momentum
Bremen got off to a better start in the second half. Shortly after the restart, Gladbach goalkeeper Nicolas had to defuse a powerful shot from Yukinari Sugawara from 18 meters. A little later, Karim Coulibaly headed the ball towards the far post, where the Japanese player, who was ready to shoot, narrowly missed the ball again. As a result, Gladbach allowed themselves to be pushed in behind, lost the ball very quickly and hardly provided any relief.
Gladbach counters and scores out of nowhere
Right in the middle of Bremen’s pressure phase, Gladbach scored out of nowhere. Reitz and Franck Honorat quickly moved forward on the right side. The ball came to Tabakovic in the middle, who just had to push it in.
Lynen hits the post
Werder appeared unimpressed and continued to put pressure on Gladbach. The Borussia were exclusively occupied on the defensive. But it wasn’t really compelling, no matter how hard Bremen tried.
The Green-Whites were unlucky in the 84th minute when Senne Lynen hit the post with a powerful shot from the second row. Shortly afterwards, Nicolas had to do everything he could to deal with a shot from Olivier Deman.
Gladbach continued to be under constant pressure and it happened in stoppage time. At a corner, Borussia didn’t get the ball cleared and Topp scored with a powerful shot. The deserved compensation.
Bremen in Freiburg, Gladbach against Leverkusen
Bremen will be guests at SC Freiburg on the next matchday on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). Gladbach welcomes Bayer Leverkusen in the evening (6.30 p.m.).
