The head coach ahead of the game: “These will be two very challenging games. We need to be very vigilant,” stressed Werder head coach Florian Kohfeldt ahead of the first leg of his side’s Bundesliga relegation playoff in the club’s history. “Nobody is underestimating anyone here.” 1. FC Heidenheim come to Bremen as third in the 2. Bundesliga, and as Kohfeldt says, they “have weapons that can hurt us”. Kohfeldt believes that the outstanding characteristics of Frank Schmidt’s side include their way of playing out of possession, as well as their distribution, combined with their strength in the tackle. The 37-year-old coach also notes FCH’s strength on set-pieces. As for who is favoured in the matchup, Kohfeldt states, “Basically, I’m happy being the favourite. It implies that you’ve got a lot of things under control.” But the title also comes with negative implications. “The tension is really high. It’s the same pressure we’ve felt in the last weeks, if not even higher than that.”
The last match: “I don’t think there’s any way we can repeat that result,” said Florian Kohfeldt, remembering Werder’s 4-1 second-round DFB-Pokal home win against Heidenhem in October. A repeat of that result would be desirable though, because SVW managed to lead with four goals from Milot Rashica, Leonardo Bittencourt, Davy Klaassen and Marco Friedl after only 41 minutes. Even though the Werder coach has recently looked at this game again, he expects a match that’s very different from October’s affair. “You have to take a more strategic approach to a game like this. Unlike the cup, there’s now two legs, which both count.”
