With just one win between them in the 2023-24 Bundesliga season so far, bottom-half strugglers Werder Bremen and FC Koln seek to right their recent wrongs at the Wohninvest-Weserstadion on Saturday evening.
Ole Werner's team were bested 4-2 by new boys Heidenheim in their most recent affair, while the Billy Goats fell short in a 3-1 home loss to Hoffenheim.
Match preview
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Despite entering the international break on a high owing to a 4-0 drubbing of Mainz - which snapped a three-game losing run at the start of the new term - the fortnight's break evidently did Werder Bremen more harm than good when top-flight action resumed last weekend.
Tim Kleindienst and Eren Dinkci propelled Heidenheim into a two-goal lead on September 17, but Werner's half-time substitutions initially worked a treat, as Marvin Ducksch cut the deficit in half from a penalty rebound before Olivier Deman cross for Mitchell Weiser to draw Bremen level at 2-2.
However, the visitors' reprieve was short-lived, as Dinkci doubled his tally for the afternoon before Kleindienst turned provider for Jan-Niklas Beste to net a fourth for Heidenheim, who made Werder Bremen their first-ever victims in the Bundesliga.
With defeats to Bayern Munich and Freiburg also representing eyesores on their record - not to mention their DFB-Pokal exit at the hands of Viktoria Koln - Werder Bremen are languishing in 12th spot in the table and will be dragged into a battle for survival barring an imminent turnaround in fortunes.
Since the beginning of March, only two of the hosts' last 16 Bundesliga games have ended with Werner's side taking all three points, but on the other hand, only Borussia Dortmund and Bayern have walked away from the Wohninvest-Weserstadion with clean sheets since the end of October.
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Similarly, Koln also went into the two-week hiatus having put their first points on the board - albeit in much less entertaining circumstances in a 1-1 draw away to Eintracht Frankfurt - and Steffen Baumgart's men could not keep the momentum going when Hoffenheim came to town.
The writing was on the wall when Andrej Kramaric opened the scoring with just 49 seconds gone, and further strikes from Florian Grillitsch and Maximilian Beier were to follow before Davie Selke pulled one back for the Billy Goats with half an hour remaining.
However, Selke's effort could not inspire a late turnaround for Koln, whose afternoon went from bad to worse when Rasmus Carstensen was sent off for two bookable offences in added time, and Baumgart's side sit 16th in the 18-team table as a result.
Such a ranking would force Koln to scrap for Bundesliga survival in the relegation/promotion playoff, and while seven goals conceded is the best defensive record in the bottom half, three goals at the correct end of the pitch is the joint-worst tally in the division alongside basement team Mainz.
The Billy Goats are now winless in six Bundesliga games, although they have suffered just one defeat from their last six on the road, and they came away from Werder Bremen's turf with a point from a 1-1 draw during their final road game last term.
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Team News
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Yet to make his debut for his new club, former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita could be in line for some belated first minutes for Werder Bremen here, as the Guinea international has made a full recovery from the groin injury he sustained in July.
Werner has ruled out the prospect of Keita making the first XI, but the midfielder is in contention to make his debut from the bench, leaving surgical victim Felix Agu as the hosts' only injury concern for the weekend.
While their contributions off the bench were ultimately for nought last weekend, Ducksch and Deman may have played their way into starts this weekend, while Rafael Borre is an option to partner the former in a two-pronged offence.
As for Koln, Danish attacker Carstensen will sit this one out through suspension owing to his red card against Hoffenheim, so Dimitrios Limnios, Luca Waldschmidt and Faride Alidou will all battle for a starting berth on the right flank.
Carstensen joins a host of injury-related absentees for Saturday's trip to Bremen, as all of Florian Dietz (knee), Noah Katterbach (knee), Eric Martel (Achilles), Mathias Olesen (hamstring), Jan Thielmann (knee) and Mark Uth (thigh) are unavailable too.
On the back of scoring his first goal of the Bundesliga season, Selke will spearhead the charge against the club whom he left in acrimonious circumstances for RB Leipzig in 2015, before returning to Bremen for an 18-month loan in January 2020.
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Pieper, Friedl, Stark; Weiser, Stage, Gross, Schmid, Deman; Borre, Ducksch
FC Koln possible starting lineup:
Schwabe; Schmitz, Hubers, Chabot, Paqarada; Ljubicic, Huseinbasic; Waldschmidt, Kainz, Alidou; Selke
We say: Werder Bremen 1-1 FC Koln
Baumgart has been loath to label Koln's current predicament a "crisis", and with good reason too, as the Billy Goats have only been bested by Borussia Dortmund in their last six away games and can restore a small slice of pride against a leaky Werder Bremen crop.
The hosts are very rarely kept at arm's length in front of their own fans, though, and we can see another low-scoring draw being played out between the two sides, as was the case four months ago.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
