First wide awake, then sleepy: Werder Bremen didn’t get beyond a disappointing 3:3 (1:1) at the end of the first half of the season in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Heidenheim. The Green-Whites were in the lead three times: after just 45 seconds through Marco Grüll, after his second goal (79th) and Marvin Ducksch’s goal (56th). But in a wild game, coach Ole Werner’s team lost track of everything, so Jan Schöppner (30th), Luca Kerber (61st) and Leon Scienza (90th + 4) were each able to equalize.
Werder scored against Heidenheim for the first time in the Bundesliga, but there was actually a lot more possible. However, the Bremen team remains in close contact with the European Cup places. For Heidenheim, the point could still be worth its weight in gold in the fight to stay in the league; coach Frank Schmidt’s team drew level on points with FC St. Pauli and TSG Hoffenheim.
“You really noticed that there was still something in it for us,” said goalkeeper Kevin Müller on “Sky”, “we can do a lot of things right in this English week that we did wrong before.”
“We know what to expect,” Werner said before the game and warned about Heidenheim – Werder were initially wide awake. Grüll scored immediately after kick-off, and the Hanseatic League continued to put pressure on them and play forward with determination. Ducksch initially only hit the crossbar in the eleventh minute.
Last minute shock for Werder Bremen
It was difficult for Heidenheim to recover from the early shock in front of 39,350 spectators, especially since Jonas Föhrenbach was also injured during the warm-up and was unable to play. In addition, Niklas Dorsch had to be substituted after just nine minutes, but the guests bit their way back into the game over time. And suddenly they came dangerously in front of the Werder goal every now and then. As skilfully as Bremen did on the offensive, the absence of the suspended captain and defense chief Marco Friedl was also noticeable on defense.
And so the Heidenheim equalizer no longer came out of nowhere. Schöppner wasn’t really attacked when he scored, so he was able to calmly place the ball on his right foot just before the penalty area – and then curled it into the goal in a remarkable way.
An intense duel between equals developed, with both teams looking for a way forward. And Werder once again got off to a better start after the restart, Ducksch coldly exploiting a rebound in the best center forward style. But Heidenheim benefited again from Werder’s inattention, Kerber only had to push in after a quick combination. Then Grüll was there again, but the guests equalized at the last second with a free kick from Scienza.