Werder Bremen accept ‘ugly win’ over St. Pauli | OneFootball

Werder Bremen captain Marco Friedl – for whom the start to competitive play got off to the worst of all possible starts – has seen his mood slowly improve as Bundesliga season progresses. For all of their issues this year, Friedl’s Hanseaten were able to snatch their second league victory of the season on Saturday. The narrow 1-0 home win over FC St. Pauli certainly wasn’t pretty, but the three points still count.

Blockbuster summer signing Samuel Mbangula opened up the scoring early, notching his second Bundesliga goal in the 2nd minute. After that, Werder weren’t able to convert their momentum, and several additional scoring chances, into a second goal. The hosts were at least able to defend consistently over the course of the additional 88 minutes.

Speaking to Sky Germany afterwards, Bremen head coach Horst Steffen praised his team for its solid defending throughout and added that – on a cumulative basis – Werder contributed “about a half hour of decent football“. Steffen also conceded that “an equalizer would not have been undeserved” as the visiting Kiezkicker got their looks in as well.

“We didn’t do well in many situations,” Friedl noted in his post-match interview with DAZN. “And we made many mistakes. Such victories come over the course of a season. One can take them. I’m happy that we won today, even if it was an ugly win.”

GGFN | Peter Weis