A different kick-off time, a different competition, a different situation altogether – on Wednesday, the Green-Whites can forget about their poor start in the Bundesliga for an evening. SV Werder meet TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the second round of the DFB-Pokal (KO 20:45).
The suspended striker: Fin Bartels will be watching from the stands on Wednesday night. Last season, he was sent off in the first-round defeat to Sportfreunde Lotte and was banned for two cup games. After this season’s DFB-Pokal opening win in Würzburg (3-0), he is therefore also not available for selection against Hoffenheim.
The double reunion: Florian Grillitsch and Serge Gnabry are both returning to the Weserstadion. After four years and 48 Bundesliga appearances at Werder, Grillitsch moved to Kraichgau in the summer. He made his first start for TSG on Sunday. “Werder are still close to my heart and I have lots of friends there. I feel for Bremen at the moment, I always follow the club’s results. But I’m not worried about them; I’m convinced that they’ll be safe from relegation,” Grillitsch said to kicker. Gnabry, who has been out with a series of injuries for most of the season so far, is likely to miss the chance to play against his former side.
Former teammates: Ex-Werder Sandro Wagner and summer signing Jerome Gondorf featured for Darmstadt 98 together in the 2015/16 season and played a big part in the club’s survival in the Bundesliga. Whilst Wagner was the top goalscorer for the Lilies with 14 Bundesliga goals, Gondorf played 33 of 34 matches and the game he missed was due to a suspension after picking up too many yellow cards. Robert Bauer and Hoffenheim’s Benjamin Hübner also played together. They won promotion to the Bundesliga whilst playing alongside each other at FC Ingolstadt in 2015 and then helped the Bavarian team to survive in the top-flight the following season.
The last meeting between the two sides: On matchday one of the Bundesliga, the Green-Whites were narrowly beaten by TSG 1-0. Robert Bauer deflected the shot from Andrej Kramaric five minutes before the end of the game, leaving Jiri Pavlenka motionless in the Werder goal. The last time the two sides met in the cup was in the 2009/10 season. That was the first time SVW and TSG met in the DFB-Pokal. The Green-Whites won 2-1 in the quarter-final tie with goals from Naldo and Hugo Almeida.
The pre-match quotes: “It’s our next chance to get a victory, so we didn’t have much of a chance to be downbeat. It’ll be a great game against a strong opponent. It’s a win or lose situation. There aren’t any draws. So in that sense, it’s an all or nothing match,” Ludwig Augustinsson said to WERDER.DE.
The referee: Tobias Stieler will referee the tie. The 36-year-old refereed Werder last season in the 1-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen. He will be assisted by Matthias Jöllenbeck and Christian Gittelmann. The fourth official is Martin Thomsen whilst there is no Video Assistant in the DFB-Pokal.
