Werder Bremen vs Borussia Dortmund

High-flying Borussia Dortmund make an exciting trip to the Weserstadion to lock horns with Werder Bremen.

Werder Bremen got their post-World Cup Bundesliga tour off to a sluggish start, losing back-to-back league matches at the beginning of the new calendar year. However, manager Ole Werner has swiftly rallied his troops, with ‘Die Werderaner’ winning consecutive top-flight in the aftermath, including a 2-0 triumph at Stuttgart last weekend. And while a seven-point deficit on sixth-placed Freiburg leaves Werder with a glimmer of hope regarding a potential Europen qualification, their Bundesliga home record this season reads worryingly (W4, D1, L5). Close contests have been a common theme in Werder’s home league matches this term, with eight out of nine yielding a full-time margin of under 1.5 goals and the last four producing an identical 2-1 scoreline (W2, L2).

As for Borussia Dortmund, a 2-1 away win over Bochum in midweek DFB-Pokal action maintained their 100% win ratio across five post-World Cup matches in all competitions. Four of those triumphs have come in the Bundesliga, including the last two via multi-goal margins, bolstering their bid to curtail Bayern Munich’s decade-long dominance of German football. Indeed, Edin Terzic’s men head into proceedings only three points below table-topping Bayern, though they must improve their away form to increase their chances in a keenly-contested title race. It’s been ‘all or nothing’ for Dortmund on the road this term (W5, L5), but they’ve won on their last two league travels. Moreover, ‘Die Borussen’ have suffered just one defeat in their ten previous Bundesliga away matches against Werder (W7, D2).