Two relegation threatened sides meet at the Weserstadion on Sunday evening as Hertha BSC travel west to take on Werder Bremen in a battle of 16th vs. 18th.
The hosts, Werder Bremen, really struggled in the first half of the season as they only won four matches, while losing eight and drawing the other five. New manager, Viktor Skripnik has them feeling good though since they defeated a Borussia Dortmund as 2014 came to a close. During the winter break, Bremen, played four friendly matches against Bundesliga and 3. Bundesliga opposition winning every match against the top flight opponents by a score of 3-2 while losing to MSV Duisburg 3-1, in the most shocking result of the break.
Jos Luhukay spent their break in Switzerland playing friendly matches against 3. Liga outfit, Hallescher FC, and Swiss Super League clubs Young Boys and Thun. Their camp did not really start out that great as they lost to Hallescher in their opening friendly by a scoreline of 3-1, but ended the winter break on a positive note by defeating Thun 1-0. Hopefully they can take a little bit of confidence with them heading to the rest of the season as they hope to avoid relegation to the second division of German football.
The last time these two sides met, on August the 23rd, they battled to a 2-2 draw in which Julian Schieber scored a brace in 47 minutes. Unfortunately for Hertha, Werder Bremen found their equalizer just eight minutes later through Franco Di Santo. Expect this match to be an exact copy of the previous enoucnter. These two sides are desperate to pick up any point they can so there will be end to end action. The only thing that may be lacking tomorrow is the end product.
Werder Bremen predicted starting XI: Wolf; Gebre Selassi, Galvez, Vestergaard, Garcia; Bargfrede; Fritz, Junuzovic; Bartles; di Santo, Selke
Hertha Berlin predicted starting XI: Kraft; Pekarik, Langkamp, Brooks, Schulz; Niemeyer, Lustenberger; Haraguchi, Ronny, Stocker; Schieber