SV Werder Bremen lost 2-0 to FC Augsburg on Saturday afternoon and thus take the battle for survival into the last match of the season. The Green-Whites were handed an advantage as the hosts were reduced to 10 men early on, but were unable to capitalise on the extra man and were beaten thanks to two second-half goals from Rani Khedira (57’) and Daniel Caligiuri (90’). Florian Kohfeldt’s team have one last match against Borussia Mönchengladbach next Saturday to avoid relegation.
Line-up and formation: Head coach Florian Kohfeldt made one change to the team that drew 0-0 with Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. Ömer Toprak made his comeback from injury and replaced the injured Milos Veljkovic in central defence. Marco Friedl and Manuel Mbom also returned to the squad after time out but were on the bench. Kohfeldt opted for an attacking 4-3-3 system, just as he did against Leverkusen.
Starting XI: Pavlenka, Augustinsson, Selke, Bittencourt, Füllkrug, Moisander, Sargent, Toprak, Gebre Selassie, Eggestein, Groß.
Substitutes: Zetterer, Möhwald, Rashica, Osako, Agu, Erras, Friedl, Mbom, Bargfrede.
First half highlights:
9th minute: Werder are passing it round well in the early stages as Josh Sargent plays through Niclas Füllkrug. The striker holds off the defender and shapes to shoot, but his connection on the ball is poor and his effort goes wide.
13th minute: Red card for FC Augsburg! The hosts are reduced to 10 men after less than a quarter of an hour played as Ruben Vargas is shown a straight red for kicking Theodor Gebre Selassie in an off-the-ball incident!
21st minute: Double chance for Werder! SVW are starting to make their man advantage count as they push forward. Josh Sargent has a shot blocked off the line, before Davie Selke goes close from the resulting corner!
29th minute: Josh Sargent sees his shot blocked and Ludwig Augustinsson tries on the rebound but cannot find the target.
35th minute: Ludwig Augustinsson wins a corner and whips it into the box. Davie Selke rises highest but Gikiewicz makes a good stop to keep the ball out.
44th minute: Josh Sargent is played in and cuts it back from the by-line, but Davie Selke cannot quite stretch far enough to touch it home.
Second half highlights:
49th minute: Red card for SV Werder. Christian Groß makes a bad challenge and is shown a second yellow card with just four minutes of the second half played.
57th minute: Goal for FC Augsburg. Werder fail to clear the ball after a scramble in the box and Rami Khedira reacts fastest to poke the ball past Pavlenka to put the hosts ahead.
68th minute: Theodor Gebre Selassie finds Niclas Füllkrug with a good cross but the striker’s header is denied by Rafal Gikiewicz who pulls off a fingertip save to prevent an equaliser.
74th minute: So close from Leonardo Bittencourt! Werder's number 10 lines up a shot from distance and crashes the ball off the inside of the post.
79th minute: Jiri Pavlenka makes a good stop with his legs to deny Amaral Borduchi.
90th minute: Goal for FC Augsburg. The hosts break as Werder push men forward and Milot Rashica brings down Hahn in the box. Daniel Caliguiri steps up and fires home to seal the win for FCA.
Conclusion: Both teams fought hard in the early stages with much of the action taking place in the midfield, as neither side wanted to take too many risks in this six-pointer. The first half was characterised by fouls as the football remained scrappy. SVW were handed a boost as Augsburg had Ruben Vargas sent off, but still could not break down the hosts’ defence. Shortly after half time, Christian Groß was sent off and the hosts took advantage of the 10 vs. 10 situation to seal a 2-0 win over Florian Kohfeldt’s team.
