Werder got their first Bundesliga win of 2017 in February. The opponent on that day was 1. FSV Mainz 05. On Saturday 16th December 2017, the Green-Whites have their final Bundesliga game of the year (KO 15:30 CET). The opponent? Mainz. Florian Kohfeldt’s team will want to end 2017 in the Bundesliga on a high by overtaking the visitors and climbing up the table. WERDER.DE looks ahead to the key points before the final Bundesliga match of the year at the Weserstadion.
The last meeting between the two sides: Games against Mainz last season were bittersweet for the Green-Whites. The first game between the two was extremely frustrating. The game couldn’t have started better for Werder. Izet Hajrovic gave Werder the lead after 12 minutes, coming in from the right and firing it into the net from 20 yards. Werder defended that lead stoically until the 87th minute when football proved how cruel it can be. Yunus Malli scored the equaliser before Pablo de Blasis headed the ball home in the last seconds of the game to give Mainz a 2-1 win and a bitter home loss for the Green-Whites. The away game was the start of a brilliant Werder run in which they went 11 games unbeaten. Serge Gnabry and Thomas Delaney scored in the space of seven first-half minutes and Mainz couldn’t recover from the early setback, giving Werder a 2-0 win and a first of 2017.
The quotes ahead of the game: The Green-Whites have a clear target for the last league game of the year – three points. “I want the team to give it their all, play with intelligence and then hopefully, we can get out of the relegation places. It’s in our hands,” head coach Florian Kohfeldt said. Werder’s top goalscorer Max Kruse wants to approach the game against the Rhineland in a similarly positive manner to the last home games against Hannover and Stuttgart. “We need to take that positivity and go again,” Kruse said. For Thomas Delaney, the game against Mainz is a good opportunity to put the Leverkusen loss behind them – “When we lose, I immediately look ahead because there’s no point looking back. It is even better that three days after the Leverkusen game we have a chance to make up for that result.”
Öztunali reunion on the rocks: From early 2015 to the summer of 2016, Levin Öztunali plied his trade at the Weserstadion, making 46 appearances in the Green-White jersey. However, a reunion with the Germany U21 international is in doubt, as is dangerman Yoshinori Muto’s inclusion in Saturday’s game. The Zerofivers that will definitely not make the trip to Bremen are Rene Adler, Stefan Bell, Suat Serdar and Jean-Philippe Gbamin. For Werder, it is not yet clear whether Luca Caldirola or Aron Johannsson will be fit in time, while Philpp Bargfrede and Zlatko Junuzovic will also have to be monitored.
The referee: Benjamin Cortus, a Bundesliga referee since 2016, will officiate the encounter. Coincidently, he was also the man with the whistle during Werder’s first win of the season against Hannover 96. His assistants will be Daniel Schlager and Florian Badstübner, with Markus Schüller as the fourth official. Günther Perl and Dr. Martin Thomsen will be tasked with being the video assistant referees.
