It was clear that this supporting program had to be chosen before kick-off. On Sunday evening, scenes from the glorious days of SV Werder flickered across the two scoreboards in Bremen’s Weser Stadium, which was also a great thing for the home fans because these times were only exactly eight days ago. You could see Bremen players in salmon-colored away shirts dashing uninhibitedly across the pitch, and the voice of a commentator booming from the stadium speakers who spoke of a “devastating victory” in English as Werder went 0-2 in the final minutes 3:2 victory had corrected.
There’s no denying that this “devastating win” at Borussia Dortmund was a huge event for SV Werder and their supporters, one that will be mentioned in any season review. And as soon as the audience had recovered from the highlight clip from the previous week, the next spectacle started, only this time live on the pitch and with the worse end from Bremen’s point of view: Werder lost 3: 4 to Eintracht Frankfurt in a wild game.
There was another striking difference between the Dortmund game and the Frankfurt game, because there was a lack of a coherent dramaturgy that could have been used to organize the events. It went back and forth, haywire, so fast that viewers could feel as if they had stepped into a washing machine with the “spin” function. In this respect, it was quite fitting that in the second minute a player scored the first goal who has seen for himself in his career how quickly things can develop forwards and backwards: Frankfurt’s Mario Götze hit the backcourt after a pass 18 meters into the left corner.
In the end, Frankfurt almost scored twice in their own goal
It was not possible to say exactly which team would decide the game from now on, and that is saying something as Werder equalized a little later within just three minutes. Of course, the screenwriter had also come up with a few special details: Left-footed Anthony Jung scored with a right-footed shot (14th minute) and Leonardo Bittencourt, who was only 1.70 meters tall, scored with a header (17th). Now the roles were reversed again, the hunter became the hunted and vice versa. The only problem for Bremen was that the game – unlike the previous week – went on for a while and Eintracht made no move to become a protagonist in the next Werder comeback story. On the contrary: Frankfurt approached the matter with a certain coolness, gained an advantage in midfield and closed the spaces so cleverly that Bremen got a considerable diversification in their otherwise solid passing game.
The visiting team benefited from the fact that Bremen playmaker Bittencourt had to leave injured and defender Christian Gross, who was later substituted, did not have his best day. But it also showed the quality of the Champions League participant Frankfurt compared to the newly promoted Bremen. The two swift and agile attackers Randal Kolo Muani and Jesper Lindström appeared as permanent sources of trouble, both of whom put Eintracht back in the lead: Kolo Muani grabbed a bad Bremen pass before his right-footed shot (32′), Lindström chipped the ball stylishly over Werder goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka into the goal (39th).
What was particularly amazing about this game was that the tremendous tempo maintained by both teams in the second half didn’t result in more goals. Because Werder conscientiously adhered to the requirement that a game lasts at least 90 minutes and were not deterred by the fact that they were 4-2 behind after Djibril Sow’s goal. In their continuous attacks, Bremen used all the offensive resources available: striker Niclas Füllkrug scored the goal from the penalty spot in added time, which is why in the final minutes all eyes were on substitute joker Oliver Burke, who has already played two games this season could score last minute goals. Burke was unsuccessful this time, but Eintracht almost scored twice themselves – and that was really all that was missing from this game.
