Werder Bremen vs FC Köln preview: A massive match in the relegation battle | OneFootball

FC Köln

The good news for FC Köln is that they haven’t lost any of their last three contests. The bad news is they haven’t won any of them either.

This run started away to Hamburg. The two newly-promoted sides battled and both scored late in the first half, which turned out to be the end of the scoring. Then came the North Rhine-Westphalia derby, and that proved to be one of the games of the season.

Borussia Mönchengladbach opened the scoring within a minute, but then by the seventh minute the score was 2-1 to Köln. Another two goal swing took place, this time in favor of Gladbach, which forced the hosts to find another equalizer. They did that through Eric Martel, who was then sent off two minutes later.

The Billy Goats wrapped up their spell this past weekend against Eintracht Frankfurt. For 65 minutes no goals were scored. Then, in the span of less than 20 minutes, each team scored twice. Frankfurt jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Köln fought back well despite being on the road, and managed to pick up an important point.

That put them two points ahead of St. Pauli in the battle to starve off the relegation-playoff. Considering Köln also has a better goal differential, that’s a critical difference going down the final stretch. That gap might only widen this matchday.

Die Geißböcke host fellow relegation candidates Werder Bremen, while Pauli take on the major power that is Bayern Munich. While Bremen has improved recently, that’s still a matchup where Köln knows they have a chance of victory, especially at home.

If they are to secure all three points, breakout star Saïd El Mala will likely play a part. The 19-year-old has burst onto the scene this campaign, scoring 10 goals and even adding three assists to his name. He also scored in the reverse fixture, with a stoppage-time goal snatching a tie from the jaws of defeat for the Carnival club.

We might learn a lot about Köln here, or maybe they’ll end up drawing once again.

Team newsThe Billy Goats will be missing a few important pieces, as Joël Schmied, Luca Kilian, and Timo Hübers are all unavailable for selection.

Predicted lineupsSchwabe, Thielmann, Sebulonsen, van den Berg, Ozkacar, Hansen, Krauß, Huseinbasic, Kaminski, Ache, El Mala

Werder Bremen

This could be the weekend Werder Bremen really puts a gap between themselves and the relegation zone.

While the picture might look a little different by the time their game kicks off on Sunday, things are looking decent for Bremen going into this matchday. At the time of writing they sit in 14th place, with seven points separating them and Wolfsburg in the final automatic relegation spot.

The battle to avoid the relegation-playoff is much tighter, though. Neighbors St. Pauli currently holds that position on 25 points, with Köln on 27 points and then Werder on 28. With Pauli taking on first-place Bayern Munich, there’s not much of a chance that they’ll gain any ground there.

That puts the Green-Whites in an excellent position. If they are able to beat their opponents this weekend, they’d likely open up a six point gap on the playoff spot, and a nice five-point cushion on 15th place just to be safe. It wouldn’t secure officially safety, but it would come damn close.

Bremen did miss a chance to pick up a big win last time out. Hosting RB Leipzig, there was an opportunity to surprise those across the Bundesliga. They didn’t play too poorly, but some defensive slip-ups led to them going down 2-0 early in the 2nd half. Salim Musah, scoring his first career goal, made it close very late on, but there wasn’t enough time to steal a draw.

Those sorts of losses won’t ruin Werder’s season, and another loss this weekend wouldn’t necessarily be a killer blow either. However, it would hurt pretty bad, and it’d put huge pressure on future contests.

For the sake of their supporters, Die Werderaner would rather just win this weekend and put those fears away.

Team newsBremen’s injury report is a bit of a mess. The likes of Mitchell Weiser, Julian Malitini, Maximilian Wöber, Keke Topp and Victor Boniface are officially out through injury, while Cameron Puertas is suspended. There’s a list of players who are doubtful for one reason or another, with those being Jens Stage, Justin Njinmah, Jovan Milosevic, Marco Frield, and Karim Coulibaly.

Predicted lineupsBackhaus, Sugawara, Pieper, Friedl, Agu, Bittencourt, Lynen, Stage, Mbangula, Musah, Schmid