Werder professional Leonardo Bittencourt: “I’m sure we’ll get promoted”

5 game days before the end of the season

The promotion race in the 2nd Bundesliga is hard fought five games before the end of the season. Table leaders Schalke 04 and pursuers Werder Bremen, FC St. Pauli, Darmstadt 98 and 1. FC Nürnberg all have a chance of making it into the German top flight. Now Bremen’s Leonardo Bittencourt (28) was self-confident. “I’m sure we’ll get promoted,” said the offensive player in an interview with the “picture“. “Next year (meaning the coming season; ed.) we are first class. I’m burning to play with Werder in the first division again.”

“In the last few weeks we’ve knelt down that we now have the opportunity to get promoted,” said the former junior international. While Bremen were still in ninth place after the first half of the season, a run of ten games without defeat brought about a turning point, which is why Werder are currently in second place. Bremen share the score with Schalke, who have the better goal difference. “We have proven that we can do it and want to do it now.” As a look at the remaining program of the second division clubs shows, for all promotion aspirants in the final sprint of the season it is still up against the direct competition.

Werder meets Nuremberg next Sunday (1:30 p.m.) before a game against Schalke in the following week. “We look from game to game and want to do our jobs. Arithmetic doesn’t help anyway, you don’t get the points,” Bittencourt is quoted as saying. Measured against the average placement of the upcoming opponents, which is 9, the green-whites have the supposedly easier remaining program compared to the other clubs in the top 5. “We have everything in our own hands,” said Bittencourt, who has made 17 appearances this season due to injury. His four goal contributions are surpassed by only four players within the team, including strikers Marvin Ducksch (28) and Niclas Füllkrug (29).

Together, the attackers provided 32 of Bremen’s 53 goals, which is why the two are the top duo in the German lower house. In the past eight games, Werder’s goals have been shared between the two attacking forces. “Because we play with two strikers, it is automatically the case that one of the two gets the best situation. That’s why we try to feed them as best we can. But of course we also had chances to score goals. In the coming games, we should like to get around more,” Bittencourt remarked, who felt “pure anticipation” in the final sprint of the season. “I would love to play English weeks now. I can’t wait.” After being relegated for the first time since the 1979/80 season, Bremen could make it back to the Bundesliga at the first attempt.

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