Gelsenkirchen (dpa) - Werder Bremen has confirmed its upward trend of the past few weeks and has taken advantage of the FC Schalke 04 crisis.
With the 1: 0 (1: 0) victory in the Veltins-Arena the table-17. after the 1-0 win in Freiburg and the 0-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, another exclamation point in the fight against relegation from the Bundesliga. The winning goal was scored by Leonardo Bittencourt in the 32nd minute with a long-range shot that left Schalke goalkeeper Alexander Nübel powerless. The team of coach David Wagner, on the other hand, continues its downward slide unabated and, like most recently in the 1996/1997 season, has now been without a win for eleven games.
Wagner had opted for the fourth goalkeeper swap this season. "Because Schubi was unfortunately unable to help the team in the last games and could provide the security that we had hoped for and expected," Wagner explained his decision on TV channel Sky. "Accordingly, we decided to switch."
The 23-year-old Nübel was able to prove himself again after the last four appearances of his opponent Markus Schubert, but remained largely unemployed. As last time at 1: 2 in Dusseldorf, the royal blues from a five-man defense chain acted with the two fresh forces Jean-Clair Todibo and Juan Miranda on the left.
The hoped-for defensive stability only lasted for a good half hour. Bittencourt took advantage of a ball loss from Todibo and brought the Bremer 1-0 in front with a distance shot from around 20 meters that was impossible for Nübel. The best chance to equalize was missed by Weston McKennie, who had scored the lead against Düsseldorf, with a header just next to the Bremen goal.
The worst return team from Gelsenkirchen, with just seven points, was unable to put pressure on the opponent with playful means and force them to make mistakes. The North Germans also confirmed their upward trend against their favorite opponents.
In the second half, Benito Raman, who came for the weak Rabbi Matondo, was to take second place alongside Michael Gregoritsch for more momentum on the offensive. And indeed Raman (53.) had the 1-1 on foot, but failed from a narrow angle to Werder keeper Jiri Pavlenka. Shortly before his replacement against Ahmed Kutucu, Gregoritsch shot over the crossbar from a central position. At least you noticed in phases now that the hosts wanted to face the eighth defeat in the second half of the season and the fourth in succession.
Until the end, however, the battle-focused game remained playful from a very moderate level. In the final phase, the guests even took the initiative again, without coming up with anything countable. Nevertheless, Bremen was able to take three important and well-deserved counters with them.
Game info
Squad FC Schalke 04
Squad Werder Bremen
