SV Werder have suffered defeat in their last friendly of the winter break against Eintracht Braunschweig (2-1). In snowy conditions at the Eintracht-Stadion, Nouri’s men couldn't avoid a narrow loss to the second division side, despite carving out some good chances.
Line-up: A week before the return of the Bundesliga, Alexander Nouri lined up the Green-Whites in a 4-4-2 formation. Number 1 Jaroslav Drobny started between the sticks, while the back-four in front of him was made up of Robert Bauer, Niklas Moisander, Milos Veljkovic and Santiago García. New signing Thomas Delaney partnered captain Clemens Fritz in the centre of midfield, as Fin Bartels and Serge Gnabry provided the width. Max Kruse and Claudio Pizarro were deployed in a pair up front.
Light snow greeted the players as they kicked off. Max Kruse almost got his team off to a great start in the 13th minute, but the No. 10’s effort struck the woodwork. However, just a four minutes later, the hosts went up the other end and took the lead through Saulo Decarli (17’) - it was their first shot on goal. The Green-Whites kept pushing and were rewarded just over ten minutes later, as Serge Gnabry struck from distance to draw his team level. Shortly after, Max Kruse went close again from inside the box, as he hit the woodwork for the second time in almost 20 minutes. The two teams went into the break level.
The snow continued to fall and the players had to deal with much tougher playing conditions in the second period. In the 64th minute, Onel Hernandez restored Braunschweig’s lead as he finished through the legs of Drobny. Nouri made six changes in the 71st minute as he looked to freshen up his team and look for a winner, bringing on Luca Caldirola, Theo Gebre Selassie, Ousman Manneh, Ulisses Garcia and Maximilian Eggestein. This “new” side tried as best as they could in snowy conditions to take the game to the hosts, as the remainder of the second half was played mostly in Braunschweig’s half. Despite a late chance for Florian Kainz and Ousman Manneh, Werder couldn’t find an equaliser and in the end were defeated. Next Saturday, SVW come up against BVB at the Weser-Stadion in the first Bundesliga match of 2017.
Alexander Nouri: “Until conceding the first goal from a set-piece, we had played well. Of course we have to avoid individual mistakes, but in the first half we created good chances - I would have hoped we’d be more clinical. After the break, our opposition completely changed their line-up and the snow meant both sides suffered in a footballing sense. Until that point it, was a very good test for both teams."
Fin Bartels: “For one half it was a good, important test of endurance against a strong opponent, which we can learn from. After that point, it wasn’t a football match. We worked hard in Spain and in the coming days will continue to work intensely to prepare for Dortmund. Of course we’ll have to be better then, and that’s when you’ll be able to see if all the preparation has paid off."
Line-ups:
SV Werder: Drobny – Bauer (71‘ Gebre Selassie), Veljkovic, Moisander (71‘ Caldirola), S. Garcia (71‘ U. Garcia) – Bartels, Fritz (71‘ M. Eggestein), Delaney, Gnabry (71’ Kainz)– Kruse (71‘ Manneh), Pizarro (49’ J. Eggestein)
Eintracht Braunschweig: First half: Engelhardt - Kiljewski, Correira, Decarli, Sauer - Moll, Reichel, Abdullahi, Omladic - Biada, Nyman
Second half: Fejzic - Baffo, Valsvik, Kumbela, Matuschyk, Boland, Hochscheidt, Schönfeld, Khelifi, Hernandez, Zuck
Goals: 0-1 Decarli (18‘), 1-1 Gnabry (29‘), 1-2 Hernandez (63‘)
Referee: Patrick Schult
Spectators: 4,550
