Werder rounded-off their year on Thursday afternoon with a 1-0 win over third division side SV Meppen. The Green-Whites were in control throughout the contest but their opponents enjoyed some good moments on the counter in the first half. Despite enjoying much of the ball, the breakthrough came late in the day for Ole Werner’s side, when Tom Berger kept his cool to slot it past the goalkeeper from close range in the 82nd minute.
Line-up and formation: Oliver Burke and Michael Zetterer were the only two players to feature for the full 90 minutes as head coach Ole Werner made wholesale changes at the break. Jiri Pavlenka was forced off the field during the warm-up and was subsequently replaced by Zetterer between the sticks. U23’s Lasse Rosenboom and Tom Berger featured as SVW utilised their usual back three.
Werder’s first half line-up: Zetterer – Pieper, Stage, Weiser, Burke, Dinkci, Schmidt, Buchanan, Gruev, Groß and Chiarodia.
Werder’s second half line-up: Zetterer - Jung, Stark, Burke, Bittencourt, Berger, Salifou, Schmid, Rapp, Friedl and Rosenboom.
First half highlights:
2’- Burke finds his way in behind and but fails to beat the keeper. To the Scotsman’s relief, the offside flag goes up.
10’- Buchanan whips one into the back post but Stage’s finish is wayward.
13’- A glorious chance for Janssen to give his side the lead! The ball is flashed across the six-yard-box to the striker but he fluffs his lines and puts it wide from close range!
17’- Schmidt tries his luck from outside the area but his curling effort narrowly misses the post.
32’- Weiser finds Dinkci in the penalty area with a wonderful through ball but the Meppen goalkeeper makes himself big to deny the 21-year-old.
35’- Another huge chance inside the penalty area for the guests! It’s Vogt who gets on the end of this dangerous ball but the number 18 hits the bar!
42’- Pieper finds Burke on the edge of the penalty area with a wonderful pass. The Scot beats the defender to reach the byline and flashes it across the face of goal. Weiser picks it up at the back post and the right-back’s deflected cross nearly finds its way into the goal.
![[Translate to Englisch:] Burke bei einer Flanke](https://werdercdn.azureedge.net/fileadmin/_processed_/5/3/csm_SVW04450_078f96db41.jpg)
Second half highlights:
52’- Bittencourt has the first real chance of the half but his effort from 20 yards flicks the top of the crossbar.
63’- Friedl tries his luck from range but the skipper’s effort is a good couple of yards wide of the post.
65’- Berger finds Schmid in behind with a wonderful first time ball and the Austrian tries to square it to Burke with a chipped pass. The number nine, however, can’t quite get on the end of it and the chance goes begging.
82’- Finally the breakthrough for Werder! Bittencourt supplies Tom Berger with a superb first-time pass and with just the keeper to beat, the 21-year-old keeps his head to slot it home.
90+1- The referee blows his whistle and Werder come away 1-0 winners.
Summary: Werder were naturally the favourites going into the contest but despite enjoying much of the ball, the end product was often lacking. SV Meppen enjoyed some good moments in the first half but they were largely kept at bay in the second. It was the cool head of the U23 Tom Berger that ultimately made the difference on what was an overall satisfactory afternoon for Werner’s men.
Head coach Ole Werner: "It was important for us to get some intensity going under match conditions today and we were mainly able to do that in the second half. We struggled to find the spaces in the first half because we played too slowly. I'm overall happy with the win, which we deserved over the course of the game."
