Werder Bremen won their friendly against VfB Oldenburg, but top transfer Naby Keita was injured. Heidenheim drove a runaway victory, Darmstadt failed.
Top transfer Naby Keita suffered a minor injury shortly before his debut for Werder Bremen. The 28-year-old was supposed to play from the start in the test against VfB Oldenburg (3-1) on Sunday (July 16, 2023) in Westerstede, but complained about adductor problems during the warm-up. Keita, who had only made 84 appearances in five years at Liverpool due to various injuries, remained on the bench.
After the game, Keita gave the all-clear. “The injury isn’t that bad. I’ll be back in the next game,” he said. Ole Werner made a similar statement. “He felt something in his adductors while warming up. We’ll know more tomorrow. But it was a precautionary measure,” the Werder coach was quoted as saying in the “Bild”. Werder’s goals came from Justin Njinmah (23′), newcomer Dawid Kownacki (62′) and Jean-Manuel Mbom (64′).
Victory for Heidenheim
Bundesliga promoted 1. FC Heidenheim continues to be in goal mood in the early stages of their pre-season preparation. Coach Frank Schmidt’s team won their second test match at neighboring district football club SV Mergelstetten 14-0 (7-0). Most recently, Heidenheim had defeated an Eisack-Rienz selection 12-0 during his training camp in South Tyrol. All four of the previous new signings were used in Schmidt’s starting line-up against Mergelstetten.
Darmstadt loses test in Giessen
Newly promoted Darmstadt 98 have lost their third test in preparation for the new Bundesliga season. The “lilies” lost 0:2 (0:0) to the Hessen league team FC Gießen, with Jorden Aigboje (60th) and Leonid Akulinin (70th) scoring the goals. “We rightly lost today because we didn’t have our best day. But there are also games like that during preparation,” said coach Torsten Lieberknecht. Darmstadt will move into a training camp in Herxheim from July 22nd to 30th.
Cologne wins test against Podolski-Klub
1. FC Köln celebrated a last-minute win when they met their former star striker Lukas Podolski. Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team defeated the Polish first division club Gornik Zabrze, captained by ex-national player Podolski, 3-1 in a preparatory tournament in Sankt Johann, Austria. Sargis Adamyan (11th minute), Timo Hübers (45th) and Davie Selke (45th + 2) scored the goals for FC. Ex-Cologne Pawel Olkowski (36th) scored for Zabrze.
The Cologne team had previously lost 0-1 to second division side Hannover 96. Cedric Teuchert scored the decisive goal in the 36th minute in front of a good 2,000 spectators. Hannover also won the third game against Zabrze with an own goal by Poland (6th) and two goals by Norwegian striker Havard Nielsen (20th/45th + 1) 3-0 and thus secured the tournament victory. Each game lasted 45 minutes.
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