Finish the season with success: Securing the club’s Bundesliga status? Already forgotten. It is no longer possible for Werder to move up a place in the table. However, Werder will under no circumstances be gifting this tie to Mainz. “We absolutely want to win this match and to finish the season strongly,” said Maximilian Eggestein after the 0-0 draw against Bayer Leverkusen last Saturday. Head coach Florian Kohfeldt also endorsed Eggestein’s sentiment at the pre-match press conference: “Especially after our last match, we deserve to be able to start the summer break with a positive feeling.” The strong development that the Green-Whites have undertaken since the Werder coach joined the club is expected to be furthered against the Zerofivers. “We want to take that with us into pre-season so that we can start the new season well,” said the Germany youth international.
Favourite opponent: Werder generally go into encounters with Mainz full of confidence: The Green-Whites have won seven of the last ten away trips to Mainz, making it their favourite Bundesliga away day destination. A 63.6 percent win percentage there speaks for itself – against no other team do Werder have such a positive ratio.
Bogey team: In the same respect, when Werder Bremen pay Mainz a visit, the ‘Zerofivers’ get a bad feeling. In front of their own fans, they’ve lost to Werder on seven occasions – only Bayern have been able to come away from the Rhineland-Palatinate capital with a win more times than the Green-Whites – twice more to be exact. Furthermore, Mainz have only conceded more goals against Bayern (62) than Werder (40). To top things off, Mainz suffered their to date heaviest Bundesliga defeat at the hands of Werder Bremen, when the boys from the Weser won 6-1 in 2006.
