For Werder Bremen, the air is getting thinner in the relegation battle, but Florian Kohfeldt still protects his team. Kai Havertz and Co. are getting close to Leipzig.
Those who had hoped that Werder Bremen’s crisis could be overcome by the two-month corona break were proven wrong on Monday evening.
Led by Kai Havertz, Bayer Leverkusen inflicted a bitter 4-1 (2-1) home defeat on coach Florian Kohfeldt’s hard-fought relegation team. It was the seventh home defeat in a row for the Hanseatic League – a disastrous result.
“It was an open game until 1:3, we allowed relatively little,” said Kohfeldt. “But the goal we conceded for the 1:2 is poorly defended, it was a crass defensive error. Leverkusen consistently used their chances, that was the difference today.
“We tried everything”
However, the coach did not want to overly criticise his team: “I can’t beat them,” he said. “We have to look at the positive. If we question everything, it won’t work.”
Werder’s head of defence, Niklas Moisander, however, openly addressed the mistakes. “We get goals that are too easy,” the Finn at DAZN complained. “We tried everything, but we were not good enough.”
Theodor Gebre Selassie, who had scored the goal for the interim 1-1, was contrite after the renewed bankruptcy: “The breaking point was that we did not make the 2-2 and Leverkusen scored the 3-1 in the next attack. After that it was difficult for us. We had some chances – if we use them, the game can go differently”.
When asked about his goal, the full-back just said, “I can’t be happy about it.”
Havertz scored twice with a header after precise crosses from Moussa Diaby (28.) and Kerem Demirbay (33.), and Mitchell Weiser (61.) also overcame Werder keeper Jiri Pavlenka with the same body part, only Demirbay used the foot for his goal (78.). Meanwhile, the Brazilians managed to equalise with Gebre Selassie (31), in the five previous home games Bremen had not scored at all.