Werder Bremen vs St. Pauli preview: Werder looks for a 5th straight win | OneFootball

Werder Bremen

Werder Bremen are in dreamland.

They’ve won their last four games in a row, with the most recent being a 1-0 victory against VfL Bochum. It was far from a dominant showing, to be fair, and Bremen were second-best in the first half.

They kept pushing, and some smart substitutions plus a tiring opposition finally led to chances. The hosts made one of them count, as a direct cross from Justin Njinmah was redirected home by Mitchell Weiser from close range. Despite some chaos late on, the team held on to the win.

This run has vaulted them right into the thick of the European race. The Green-Whites are two points off 6th, three points off 5th, and four points off of 4th place. They also have a favorable schedule, and they’ll like their chances of picking up more results before the end of the campaign.

It’s all in their hands at this point. If Bremen can keep winning, they know they’ll end up in some European competition. However, they’ve fallen under this sort of pressure before, and supporters are worried that they’re going to see the same story unfold.

A win here would be huge in their quest for a top-six finish.

Team newsWerder will only be without center back Milos Veljkovic, while there’s some questions concerning the status of Oliver Burke following his decision to sign a pre-contract with Union Berlin.

St. Pauli

St. Pauli keeps chugging along, and it’s been the big reason why they’re out of the bottom three.

They clinched another big result last weekend, tying reigning-champions Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 to add another point to their tally. They went down on the night, but Carlo Boukhalfa poked home from a set-piece to grab a key equalizing goal.

Die Kiezkicker have only lost one of their last six games, and that was to league-leading Bayern Munich. That has kept them away from the relegation zone, and they currently sit five points ahead of FC Heidenheim in the battle for the relegation-playoff place.

St. Pauli’s staple has been their defense. They’re solid and hard to beat, only conceding 36 goals this season. That’s the same number as 6th place Mainz, and it’s one of the best records in the Bundesliga.

The problem is they’ve only scored 26 goals, which is the lowest tally in the entire division. At this point they know they can’t rely on any of their attacking players. Instead, they’ll have to hope to snatch a goal from a set-piece or during a counter attack.

They’ll make things ugly here, and St. Pauli certainly won’t go away without a fight.

Team newsThe problem for the club is that they’ll be without several players, like Jackson Irvine, James Sands, Karol Mets, Sascha Burchert, Scott Banks, and Simon Zoller