Bremen – The hymns of praise after SV Werder Bremen’s 3-0 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf – they were once again aimed at the wonderfully harmonious Bremen strike duo Marvin Ducksch and Niclas Füllkrug. The fact that Bremen still turned their first second division game of the new year in their favor in the last 25 minutes was also due to an actor who had recently become quite quiet in sport: Niklas Schmidt.
The 23-year-old came on in the 60th minute for the unfortunate acting Leonardo Bittencourt and immediately gave impetus to the somewhat sluggish attacking efforts of the SV Werder Bremen. while playing Niklas Schmidt immediately so cheeky and carefree that it was almost unnoticed that it was the first assignment for the native of Kassel since October 24, 2021.
Barely stood five minutes Niklas Schmidt on the field when he tested Düsseldorf keeper Florian Kastenmeier, after a pass from Ducksch, with a hard shot for the first time. Another two pointer turns later, Schmid played a one-two with Ducksch at the corner flag, whose cross found the head of strike partner Füllkrug and from there into the goal to give Bremen a 1-0 lead (67 ‘). Schmidt’s best action of the afternoon followed in the 80th minute – while falling, he skilfully pointed a cross from Milos Veljkovic to Ducksch, who thanked him with the goal to make it 2-0 and thus the preliminary decision.
Werder Bremen: Niklas Schmidt plays in Ole Werner’s focus after a change of coach and a corona infection
Not only this action with countable success Niklas Schmidt good, because the past three months have really been no picnic for the midfielder. In the first eleven games of the second division season, the homegrown counted SV Werder Bremen was still regularly part of the regular staff of the then coach Markus Anfang, showed strong performances (one goal, four assists) and was finally even rewarded with a contract extension. But then there was a dip in performance with two weak games against Darmstadt and Sandhausen. Suddenly Schmidt was no longer considered at all and found himself on the bench three times before interim coach Christian Brandt even dropped him from the squad against Holstein Kiel due to “poor training performance”.
As the end of November the new coach Ole Werner took over, got infected Niklas Schmidt with the corona virus and was out for two weeks. Schmidt apparently used the winter break and the friendlies to get on the slip with the new coach. Now the midfielder is back and has legitimate hopes of becoming an important factor again SV Werder Bremen to become. (mwi)
—
