Werder Bremen is back after just a year. On the last day of the game, the Green-Whites complete promotion to the Bundesliga. After that there is no stopping the Weser.
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Bremen’s Niclas Füllkrug (r) and Marvin Ducksch cheer after the first goal. (Image: dpa)
(Photo: Carmen Jaspersen/dpa)
Bremen – Werder Bremen returns to the Bundesliga after just one year. The green-whites won their last second division game against Jahn Regensburg 2-0 (1-0) on Sunday and thus made promotion like FC Schalke 04 a week earlier perfect.
In front of 41,000 spectators in the sold-out Weser Stadium, Niclas Füllkrug put coach Ole Werner’s team ahead in the tenth minute. Marvin Ducksch (51st) made everything clear after the break. After the final whistle, the joy on the Osterdeich knew no bounds.
The Werder fans were already in the mood for the game and the upcoming party by midday. Thousands of supporters had gathered on the market square and from there had moved to the stadium. The team, on the other hand, had tried to deal with the situation as normally as possible. As is usual with Sunday games, the pros slept at home and then each came to the stadium on their own. Werner deliberately decided not to travel together and receive a fan reception. Nothing should disturb the focus on the essentials.
Party in green and white
And the plan worked. Werder was wide awake from the start and took an early lead through Füllkrug. But then you could tell the nervousness of the hosts. Not much went together in the game going forward, on the other side the freely playing Regensburgers had one or the other chance. Only after the change of sides Ducksch cleared all doubts with the 2:0, the rest was a party in green and white.
The Bremen team thus crowned a remarkable race to catch up. Because the season had started extremely complicated. By the end of August, it was not clear which squad the then coach Markus Anfang could plan with because of the transfer proceeds that could still be achieved. Then, in November of last year, the vaccination card affair at the beginning shook the club. The coach, who was only brought in in the summer, resigned because of a fake vaccination certificate.
In retrospect, the scandal at the beginning turned out to be a happy coincidence for Bremen. Because his successor Werner finally managed to form a unit from the existing potential in the squad, which rushed from victory to victory under him. Only in the eleventh game under the direction of the former Holstein-Kiel coach did the Hanseatic League lose again in Heidenheim.
With his calm and matter-of-fact manner, Werner ensured peace in the club after there had been a lot of resentment and criticism in the summer. Sports director Frank Baumann in particular was heavily criticized by the fans. But in the end Baumann sold exactly the right players in players like Milot Rashica and Josh Sargent for a relatively large amount of money and instead kept an axis with a lot of experience around captain Ömer Toprak.
In order to stay in the first division in the coming season and not become an elevator team, the squad still has to be significantly strengthened. But nobody cared about that on Sunday. First of all, a mega party started in the Weser Stadium, which should last until Monday. A reception is then planned for the evening at City Hall.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220515-99-298903/3
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