Nürnberg drop vital points

1. FC Nürnberg came away from Borussia Dortmund with a point – but in their battle to avoid the drop they were looking for all three.

The 0-0 draw at Borussia leaves Nürnberg still third from bottom on 27 points, with fellow strugglers Bielefeld and Cottbus still to play over the weekend.

For their part, Dortmund were unable to secure the win that would have more or less guaranteed their survival. They remain 13th on 35 points.

Koller hits bar

In the first-half above all, Nürnberg failed to capitalise on the home side’s indifferent form. Their best chance fell to former BVB frontman Jan Koller, who saw a header come off the bar.

At the other end, Alexander Frei passed up a one-on-one situation with Nürnberg keeper Daniel Klewer, while his opposite number, Dortmund stand-in Marcel Höttecke, did well stop another Koller effort with a reflex save in the 38th minute.

Second-half chances

Borussia stepped up the pace after the interval, with Jakub Blaszczykowski and Florian Kringe going close – the latter having a header cleared off the line by Koller.

Shortly after Frei had failed with another excellent opportunity to break the deadlock, Marek Mintal hit the bar for FCN at the other end. Dortmund continued to have the better of the possession throughout the second half, while Nürnberg remained threatening on the break – but 0-0 it stayed.

source: bundesliga.de

Diego fails to make Cottbus clash

Diego’s thigh injury, which has hindered his participation in team training since Tuesday, has not healed in time as had been hoped it might. Following an individual training session on Friday afternoon, the Brazilian was forced to pull out of Saturday’s clash with FC Energie Cottbus: “I’m still feeling pain and have informed the trainer of the situation,” explained the midfield playmaker on his way back to the changing room.

There is some good news though for the Werder training staff, with the personnel situation currently far less strained than has been the case for the bulk of the season. At the final training session, there were 22 players looking to fill the 18 places in the squad for this weekend’s game. Both the team captain, Frank Baumann and his deputy, Torsten Frings were back on the training pitch having both been kept out of the match against Karlsruhe SC last weekend through injury. Striker Hugo Almeida, who suffered a painful ‘dead-leg’ during Friday’s training session, was able to later declare his fitness. Aside from Diego trainer Schaaf will have to make do without Martin Harnik (inner ligament damage to his left knee) and Sebastian Boenisch (thigh injury).

The following 18 man squad was nominated for the clash with Energie Cottbus: Wiese, Vander, Pasanen, Naldo, Vranjes, Fritz, Rosenberg, Özil, Hunt, Klasnic, Jensen, Mertesacker, Baumann, Owomoyela, Sanogo, Frings, Borowski, Almeida.

source: werder.de

Bundesliga Preview: Werder Bremen – Energie Cottbus

Werder Bremen entertain Energie Cottbus at the Weser Stadion on Saturday looking to secure second place in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich, while Cottbus will want to secure the points to secure their top flight survival.

Werder Look To Second

Werder Bremen look all but assured Champions League football next season, but the question is when will they enter the competition. They currently hold second place from Schalke courtesy of goal difference only so need a win on Saturday against Cottbus to fend off the Königsblauen challenge.

Finishing runners up to Bayern is no mean achievement, but Werder will be wondering what could have been. At the winter break, they were level on points with the Bavarians and many neutrals were looking forward to them giving Bayern a real run for their money right to the end of the season.

A poor start to 2008 put paid to that hope with five defeats allowing Bayern to extend their lead at the Bundesliga summit.

Werder have two tricky away ties in their final four games against Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen, so taking all three points at home to Cottbus and again in their other home game with Hannover is vital.

Schalke will no doubt push Werder all the way, and hope to repeat last season’s second place finish, but Thomas Schaaf will be hugely disappointed to give up the runners up crown to their Ruhr rivals and have to enter the Champions League at an earlier qualification round.

Cottbus To Keep Fighting

The fact that Cottbus are no longer certain relegation candidates is testament to their fighting spirit. For a long while it looked as if last season’s surprise package would crash and burn this season and suffer from a chronic case of second season syndrome.

Bojan Prasnikar was brought in to replace Petrick Sander and the Lausitzer have shown enough evidence that they can stay up this season.

That fighting spirit and determination was none more so in evidence than last weekend when they came from a goal down to equalise against Hansa Rostock in the 81st minute, before scoring a 91st minute winner.

“We are not going to the Weser Stadion with the intention of raising the white flag” announced trainer Bojan Prasnikar. “Bremen are clear favourites, but we want to get points from every game.”

Their 5-0 defeat to Schalke two weeks ago was hopefully for them just a blip as they had won their three previous games and triumphed last week against Rostock to make it four wins in five games.

FORM GUIDE

Werder Bremen

Match Result Date Championship
Karlsruher SC – Werder Bremen 3 – 3 26/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Hansa Rostock – Werder Bremen 1 – 2 15/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Werder Bremen – Schalke 04 5 – 1 12/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Hertha BSC – Werder Bremen 1 – 2 05/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Werder Bremen – MSV Duisburg 1 – 2 29/03/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Arminia Bielefeld – Werder Bremen 1 – 1 23/03/2008 BUNDESLIGA

Energie Cottbus

Match Result Date Championship
Cottbus – Hansa Rostock 2 – 1 26/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Schalke 04 – Cottbus 5 – 0 15/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Cottbus – Arminia Bielefeld 1 – 0 12/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
MSV Duisburg – Cottbus 0 – 1 04/04/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Cottbus – Hertha BSC 2 – 1 30/03/2008 BUNDESLIGA
Eintracht – Cottbus 2 – 1 21/03/2008 BUNDESLIGA

Head to head record in Bremen:

04/11/06 Werder Bremen 1 Energie Cottbus 1

22/02/03 Werder Bremen 0 Energie Cottbus 1

04/08/01 Werder Bremen 3 Energie Cottbus 2

12/08/00 Werder Bremen 3 Energie Cottbus 1

TEAM NEWS

Werder Bremen

Thomas Schaaf is still sweating on the availability of midfielders Diego and Frank Baumann. The Brazilian was forced to sit out training on Wednesday with a thigh problem, while Baumann is still struggling to recover from an ankle injury and is rated as doubtful for the Cottbus game.

German international Torsten Frings is also battling to regain full fitness following injury and will possibly make a return against Cottbus.

Probable starting XI: Wiese, Fritz, Mertesacker, Naldo, Pasanen, Frings, Jensen, Borowski, Diego, Rosenberg, Sanogo

Energie Cottbus

Dennis Sörensen is an alternative for Bojan Prasnikar as he returns from suspension. He would come in for Papadopulos if drafted in.

Christian Bassila is still out with a thigh problem, while Igor Mitreski is suspended following his red card against Hansa Rostock last weekend.

Probable starting XI: Tremmel, da Silva, Radeljic, Cvitanovic, Ziebig, Angelov, Rost, Rivic, Skela, Sörensen, Jelic

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Werder Bremen- Diego

If Werder’s talismanic midfielder makes the game, expect him to have a major impact on the result. If he is in the mood, then he will pull all the strings for Werder going forward. It will be interesting to see how he fares with referee Dr. Fleischer in charge. The last few games involving the German Fifa referee have seen him score a wonder goal from the half way line (last season v Aachen), and get himself sent off (this season v Frankfurt).

Energie Cottbus- Ervin Skela

With Cottbus fighting tooth and nail to secure their Bundesliga survival, Albanian Ervin Skela has certainly upped his game. Four goals in his last five games have handed a boost to Cottbus and helped them to a number of vital wins of late. Very dangerous from set-pieces, Werder would be wise not to concede too many cheap free kicks around their own area.

source: goal.com

Relief for Baumann on problem free return

Ahead of the vital Bundesliga clash with FC Energie Cottbus on Saturday, 03.05.2008 (3:30pm kick-off) at the Weser Stadium, team captain Frank Baumann was back in full team training for the first time since injuring ligaments in his right ankle. “It’s all good,” explained a relieved Werder captain as he came through a full training session, over the full distance, without problems.

The youngsters Sebastian Boenisch (in rehabilitation training following a thigh muscle tear) and Martin Harnik were put through an individual training session with club physio Stefan Wolters. Diego also went through a specialised rehabilitation programme as he attempts to recover from an injury to his left thigh. Whether or not the Brazilian will be, as planned, back in full team training this Friday was not quite clear for trainer Thomas Schaaf who commented: “We’ll have to wait and see how it develops. Then we can decide if he can return on Friday, or maybe not until Saturday.”

source: werder.de