Ludwig Augustinsson is only 24 years old, but he’s well-acquainted with the feeling that winning a trophy brings. In 2013, he won the Swedish cup with Göteborg. In the following years, he celebrated two title wins and three cup wins with FC Copenhagen and won the European Championship with Sweden Under-21s. These wins are obviously something that he’d like to repeat with Werder Bremen. Ahead of the DFB-Pokal kicking off this weekend, Augustinsson has set an ambitious goal.
It’s 283 days until the final in Berlin. It seems like a long time, but it’s actually quite short. There are just five games standing between Werder and the final. “The journey to the final will be difficult, but we’re dreaming of going all the way,” said a motivated Ludde. “Eintracht Frankfurt have managed it in the last two seasons, and even won it last season. We also have a lot of quality, so why not us?” he said.
The Sweden international has set an ambitious goal for Werder. At the same time, however, Augustinsson is aware of the risk of slipping up against lower-league teams in the cup. “It happened to me in Sweden, playing in the second division. We went out to a fourth division side. The same thing has happened in Germany; for example HSV losing to Osnabrück last year.”
Werder coach Florian Kohfeldt has already emphasised the danger of underestimating Saturday’s opponents, and the left-back agrees: “We have to treat the game like a normal Bundesliga match and play to our strengths. It’ll be a difficult game and we’ll have to be mentally prepared. We shouldn’t underestimate Worms, and we’ll need to be 100% focused.”
Ludde and his teammates have three more training sessions before they set off for Worms on Friday, with analysis sessions, too. The game will hopefully be the first of five wins on the road to the final.
