Back to business! The winter break is over and matchday 16 in the Bundesliga is upon us. For Ole Werner and his side, a difficult trip to fourth-placed RB Leipzig awaits on Sunday, 12th January from 15:30 CET. “We are more than capable of giving them a game over the 90 minutes. I heard that we haven’t recorded a win in Leipzig before, so our aim is to change that,” said Werder’s head coach at his pre-match press conference.
Team news: Ole Werner will be without Keke Topp and Felix Agu (both ankle). After recently sitting out in training, Justin Njinmah and Marvin Ducksch have returned to the pitch. “Duckschi only missed the first week of training and is doing well,” said Werner. "Justin has been sidelined for longer, but he’s still an option for the squad.”
Ole Werner on the opponents: They have real quality in every position and are a well-run club with a good coach. They were missing a few key players before the winter break and so couldn’t quite be at 100 percent in a number of games. Some players are back now though, which is bad timing for us and won’t make our job any easier. We’re up against a top side that has a lot of quality, but we want to produce our absolute maximum on the pitch too.”
Previous meetings: RBL have often proved tough opponents for SVW, although both games finished in 1-1 draws last season. Lois Openda and Justin Njinmah were on the scoresheet at home, while Benjamin Sesko cancelled out an own goal by Nicolas Seiwald in the reverse fixture, earning the Green-Whites their first ever point in Leipzig. Werder’s last win over the Red Bulls was a while back, with none other than Claudio Pizarro scoring a last-minute winner in a 2-1 victory on the final matchday of 2018/19.
On the heels of Wirtz and Musiala: Jens Stage has scored a total of seven goals across the opening 15 matchdays, more than in his first two seasons at Werder combined (6). The Dane is one of the deadliest midfielders in the league alongside Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, and has had a hand in four goals in his last four matches alone (3 goals, 1 assist).
