On a sunny winter’s day at the Weser-Stadion, Viktor Skripnik’s side carried on their glistening run to make it four wins from five games. Werder overcame a strong Leverkusen side with two magnificent goals from Davie Selke and Zlatko Junuzovic.

Werder Bremen came into this game on the back of two game winning run, looking to make it three but the stats were on the side today’s opponents Bayer Leverkusen, the hosts had won just one of thirteen games against Leverkusen, drawing seven and losing five. Skripnik’s side’s resurgence in form has seen them rise from the foot of the table to eleventh before the start of play.

Roger Schmidt’s Leverkusen were yet to concede in the Bundesliga in 2015. Previously, Bremen had been a happy stomping ground for the visitors. Stefan Kießling scored each of his four goals this season away from home. A negative stat for the visitors was that they failed to score more than one goal in each of their last six Bundesliga games.

The first chance of the game came from the home side; Zlatko’s Junuzovic’s teasing cross was met by centre back Jannik Vestergaard but he failed to keep his headed effort down. And after seventeen minutes of the play the first goal came. Janek Sternberg done brilliantly to intercept and the skill to lose his opponent was equally exquisite, then came brilliant one-two passing between Sternberg and Felix Kroos to set off Fin Bartels who’s delivery was volleyed home by 19-year old Davie Selke to make it 1-0.

Leverkusen fought back, however, Julian Brandt linked up with Hakan Calhanoglu to create Leverkusen’s best chance of the first twenty minutes, the Turks effort curled past the post. Another chance fell for Leverkusen with a quarter of the game gone, Calhanoglu’s corner was cleared but the clearance fell to Karim Bellarabi who blazed his shot over the bar.

After heavy pressure from the visitors, Werder fought back, Gebre Selassie met Zlatko Junuzovic’s delivery but Bernd Leno was at hand to save magnificently pushing away his effort from danger. Just a minute later, the visitors were under the cosh again, Finn Bartels cut inside from the left onto his right foot, his curling effort whistled past the post. After heavy pressure, the all-important second goal came for Bremen, after Omer Toprak was penalised for a hand ball in a dangerous set piece position, newly-crowned set piece specialist Zlatko Junukovic stepped up and picked out the top corner unbelievably, Bernd Leno stood no chance, he was grasping at thin air in attempting to keep out the strike. Werder were going into the last ten minutes of the half with a two goal lead.

The two goal deficit was halved two minutes before the break following Leverkusen’s resilience, it took three attempts for Leverkusen to pull a goal back. Julian Brandt burst down the right finding Gonzalo Castro at the edge of the box, his low effort rattled to post, then full back Wendell steamed in his shot was brilliantly saved by Wolf but Hakan Calhanoglu was at hand to nod in the rebound for Schmidt’s side. The goal giving the visitor’s a glimmer of hope going into the interval.

The Leverkusen attempted fightback continued, Heung-Min-Son was leading the line, he found Bosnian Emir Spahic but his right footed strike was blocked, then a low cross was met by Stefan Kießling but he hit the post, it was a tricky chance for the German he had to take the shot on the spin. The match still remained 2-1 to Bremen. Another chance fell to get an equaliser, Lars Benders had his attempt blocked but the deflection landed in the path of Karim Bellarabi who fired his effort over the bar from six yards out, he should’ve done better there.

Despite sitting back and suffering heavy pressure, Bremen still fought till the final whistle; they nearly put the game to bed when Junuzovic was denied his second of the game following another brilliant save from Leno.

But Roger Schmidt’s side couldn’t create any more chances before the final whistle meaning Skripnik’s side crawled to victory in the end after sustaining 63% possession of Leverkusen pressure for the majority of the second half.

This result see’s Werder’s resurgence move from fourteen places in four games up to eight in the Bundesliga, Leverkusen fall slump to sixth, one point behind Gladbach and six points ahead of nearest rivals Hoffenheim.