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NederlandWerder Bremen take on Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday, with the visitors looking to continue their unlikely assault on the European qualification positions in the table.
It remains to be seen whether Bremen come into this game revitalised or rusty after their match at Arminia Bielefeld was called off last weekend due to heavy snowfall.
Match preview
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After losing just one of their previous five league games and progressing to the DFB-Pokal quarter-final, Florian Kohfeldt may have been ruing the postponement of last weekend's trip to Bielefeld.
Indeed, with his side in considerably better form than their forthcoming opponents, it was the perfect opportunity to eke out a win and put clear daylight between themselves and the relegation playoff position they finished in last season.
However, the 38-year-old is likely to have used the absence of a gameweek as a chance to help his players find more creative solutions on the pitch, with Bremen still struggling to hold possession against practically any opponent they come up against.
Even in the recent wins against Augsburg and Greuther Furth, for example, Kohfeldt's side still had less than 50% possession of the ball. That may well be the case on Saturday against a Freiburg side currently flying, too, so the hosts will need to be clinical in transition to come away with a positive result.
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Indeed, Freiburg's impressive 2-1 win against Borussia Dortmund last weekend was Christian Streich's side's seventh victory in their last 10 league matches, which leaves them only six points outside of the Champions League qualification positions ahead of Saturday's trip to Bremen.
The hosts rode their luck at times during a goalless first half, with Emre Can smashing the bar from distance before Florian Muller superbly denied Erling Braut Haaland from point-blank range after a superb Dortmund counter-attack.
However, Streich's side are becoming increasingly clinical in the sense of taking their chances and punishing their opposition's weaknesses. In this case that came in the shape of Dortmund's reserve goalkeeper, Marvin Hitz, who was slow to react to Jeong Woo-yeong's impressive strike from distance. Three minutes later, Jonathan Schmid shot from an improbable angle, with Hitz once again beaten too easily.
16-year-old Youssoufa Moukoko was sent on by Edin Terzic to salvage the game, which nearly worked, with the teenager scoring his second Bundesliga goal before unfortunately slipping while striking the ball in injury time. However, Freiburg held on for a famous victory, with yet another win at Bremen on Saturday potentially taking them up to sixth in the table.
Werder Bremen Bundesliga form: LDWLWD
Werder Bremen form (all competitions): DWLWDW
Freiburg Bundesliga form: WLDWLW
Team News
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Bremen are likely to remain without Niclas Fullkrug, Patrick Erras and Luca Plogmann due to injury, but the trio should return to action within the next week or two.
Otherwise, Kohfeldt appears to have a clean bill of health to choose from, with his players heading into this match fresher than ever after an 11-day gap between fixtures.
Freiburg, meanwhile, will travel to Bremen without Mark Flekken, Kwon Chang-hoon and Roland Sallai due to injury.
Streich started four attackers to great effect in the win over Dortmund, so is unlikely to change anything against inferior opposition.
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Veljkovic, Toprak, Friedl; Gebre Selassie, Bittencourt, Eggestein, Mohwald, Augustinsson; Rashica, Sargent
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Muller; Schmid, Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gunter; Santamaria, Hofler; Holer, Grifo; Demirovic, Jeong
We say: Werder Bremen 1-2 Freiburg
It remains to be seen how the break will impact Bremen, but we can see Freiburg's excellent run narrowly continuing on Saturday.
Streich's side just look like a better team than their forthcoming opponents at present, with an industrious midfield serving their numerous goal threats further up the pitch very effectively.
