The squad: Ludwig Augustinsson, Yuya Osako and Claudio Pizarro, who were ill during the week, returned to training on Thursday. It will be decided on Friday whether they will make an appearance or not. Florian Kohfeldt will be without Niklas Moisander (suspended) and Milos Velijkovic (muscle strain). The coach has been forced to make changes as a result, potentially changing formation tomorrow, as well as confirming that Josh Sargent will be in the matchday squad for the first time.
The boss on the game: Kohfeldt expects to come up against a Düsseldorf side that will look counter. It’s also worth highlighting that “Düsseldorf have two very tall full backs. That means that we must decide when we want to defend from the front and when we’ve got to play a staggered line,” said the Werder coach. Moreover, Düsseldorf’s defence will be fundamentally well prepared, because “they always react well to the opponent in hand”. For Werder, Sebastian Langkamp and Marco Friedl are most likely to fill in at the core of the defence. “That’s an area that a coach doesn’t enjoy changing, but I’d like to emphasise that we have two fast centre backs in Marco and Basti, which is a disadvantage for opponents wanting to play on the counter,” explains Kohfeldt. Even more important on Friday is being very lively – “from minute one.”