After his side somehow lost to Werder Bremen from 2-0 up in the 89th minute, the returning BVB coach has work to do“Even as a child, you can’t imagine a sequence of play that spectacular,” said Ole Werner. The 34-year-old Werder Bremen manager is the Bundesliga’s youngest head coach but anyone would have celebrated as wildly on the pitch after this tumultuous ending at Signal Iduna Park, which left Borussia Dortmund stunned.“I have no idea what happened there,” said their shocked captain, Marco Reus, who has seen a lot of improbable twists in his decade at the club. Continue reading...
The Bundesliga giants can no longer cling to the past after they were relegated in humiliating style on the season’s final day In some ways, it was like so many other key moments in the history of Werder Bremen. It wasn’t supposed to happen now, though, and not like this. Thomas Schaaf was on the touchline, a reassuring silhouette in cap, glasses and beard but having presided over so many life-affirming moments that gave the team from the Weser worldwide renown, this time he was stuck, left holding the baby.At the end of an agonising Saturday afternoon the shock and horror was real, after defeat at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach condemned Werder to a second-ever relegation, and their first for...
Florian Kohfeldt’s team might have beaten Bayern. They also might have lost but settled for their now habitual 1-1 scoreline Werder Bremen arrived in Munich with the possibility of setting a peculiar record. Having drawn 1-1 in their last four Bundesliga meetings, they had equalled a 40-year-old run by Bayer Leverkusen and had, in theory at least, the opportunity to supplant Die Werkself in the most niche of trivia categories. With Bayern to face, nobody thought it would actually happen, of course. Related: Fifa bans head of African football for five years after misappropriation of funds Related: European roundup: Haaland scores four in second half to lift Borussia Dortmund Hertha Berlin 2-5 Dortmund, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 RB Leipzig, Arminia Bielefeld...
A seismic reality faces not just the club but the Bundesliga too, of which the northerners have been such a constantHe has always looked bright as the dark closed in on Werder Bremen, stood up and pointed the way forward. This time was different. Usually a beacon of positivity – a quality that has seen the club stick with him long after many of their counterparts would have happily jettisoned him – Florian Kohfeldt was deflated, the bottom of his deep well of optimism finally visible. In the minutes following Werder’s 3-1 defeat at Mainz, the head coach said he felt “empty”. In a must-win game they had started well, stumbled and then collapsed in an all-too-familiar fashion. They had...
A stylish victory over Bayer Leverkusen has confirmed that Florian Kohfeldt has given Werder’s fans reason to dreamIt was the sort of result that, when it happened, appeared to be a curio but as time has gone past, it looks more and more like a season turning point. When Bayer Leverkusen visited Werder Bremen in late October they were on little more than a hiding-to-nothing. Mired in lower-mid-table and led by an unpopular coach, they were facing a side on the crest of a wave – and one who could, with a victory, have finished the weekend in second place in the Bundesliga.It didn’t turn out like that. In a rarity amid an uninspired first half of the season under...