Head coach Ole Werner ahead of the home game against Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Leverkusen were just in action on Thursday evening and won the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 against Ferencvaros (Hungary). However, Werder head coach Ole Werner does not necessarily see an advantage over the guests due to their workload during the week. “They have a big squad and make a lot of changes,” explained Werner. “The individual player analysis therefore took a little longer, but their game as a team doesn’t change fundamentally.”

In the reverse fixture, Leverkusen were still coached by Gerardo Seoane, who has since been replaced by the world cup winner Xabi Alonso. Under the 41-year-old, they have become somewhat more consistent, and Leverkusen will want to continue to work their way up the table. In particular, SVW have to be able to deal with Bayer 04’s high tempo and skill. “It will depend on what opportunities we give our opponents to play at their pace,” revealed Werner. “We have to make sure not to create too big gaps going forward and not to lose the ball cheaply when we have possession; these are the two key points.”

Marco Friedl, Christian Groß, Romano Schmid and Eduardo dos Santos Haesler will all not be available due to illness. Even though the training week didn’t go perfectly due to the depleted group, head coach Werner expects a committed performance from his players. “We are preparing ourselves in the best possible way: we had a similar week against Bochum and also managed to perform well on the pitch. In Augsburg it was also not noticeable that a few guys were missing,” said Werner. “In the end, we have to put out a good performance.”

????️ Ole Werner on the squad: "Marco Friedl, Christian Groß, Romano Schmid and Dudu will not be available due to illness. Felix Agu and Manuel Mbom are also out."#werder#SVWB04pic.twitter.com/bdxlOvmDPE

— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) March 10, 2023