Florian Kohfeldt on the game: “We are preparing for an opponent that is by no means done this season. Köln will throw everything at us and we need to be ready for that,” explained head coach Kohfeldt. They will be expecting a motivated opponent but Werder will also be motivated in their own preparation for the game. “Training has been great so far this week. The boys have been putting in the hard yards and have been battling it out for places. Köln have played with a few different styles recently, so it’s hard to say exactly how they will line up on Monday night. What is clear however, is how strong they are on the counter. They have a lot of pace on the wings with players like Risse and Hector, a good target man in Terodde and when Claudio joins the party, he can unlock games with his passes, so we know they have a lot of quality in their side,” said Kohfeldt. Nevertheless, the deciding factor in the game will of course be how the two sides approach the game. “You can’t say now what kind of a game it will be but if we bring our quality out onto the pitch then we know we can be dominant in a closed-off game as well as a very open one,” explained Kohfeldt with a positive attitude before the game in Bremen.
The coach has a lot of choice: “We have a lot of choice at the minute,” said Kohfeldt in the pre-match press conference, talking about the squad news. Apart from the long-term injured players, the head coach is able to call upon the rest of the squad. Even Milot Rashica who had to miss Wednesday’s training due to a slight thigh problem, is back in contention.