The Round 8 of the German Bundesliga will be closed at Weserstadion in Bremen with a very interesting game between the home squad, Werder Bremen, and the visitors from Monchengladbach. The Greens form the central part of Germany are coming off from a third straight draw and a second straight goalless draw against Hamburger SV on the road. Monchengladbach on the other side recorded a victory in the last round by defeating the newcomer in the league, Hannover 96 (2:1) thus inflicting them with the first loss of the year.
The Sunday’s matchups have tendencies of being high-scoring games this season with the exception of round 1 and we’ll see if that will be the case here too. It’s a hard choice between picking the wanted outcome and aiming for a change in consistency and hopefully, we’ll not choose the wrong side. It’s money-earning time so let’s take a closer look.
SV Werder Bremen vs. Borussia Monchengladbach
Three-Way: 1: SV Werder Bremen +190; X: +272 Draw; Borussia Monchengladbach +171
Spread 0: SV Werder Bremen +102; Borussia Monchengladbach -108
Total +3: Over +110; Under -115
SC WERDER BREMEN
The Werder Bremen team is along with FC Koln one of the two squads in German Bundesliga that still don’t have a victory. On the bright side, they are also undefeated in last three rounds against Wolfsburg (1:1) and Hamburger (0:0) on the road and against Freiburg at home (0:0). They currently rank at the No. 17 spot with four total points earned in seven games and a 0-4-3 record. Their goal difference is 3-7 but at home, they’ve scored only one goal so far while conceding four. The team recorded a similar start of the season last year but they managed to get themselves out of the hole with some inspired performances in the second part of the season. Hopefully, they’ll not rely on this kind of risky scenario in order to secure the survival.
86% of Werder’s total matches had fewer than 2.5 goals in total so far while no games had over 3.5 goals. They’ve managed to concede at least one goal in both halves in only one duel while they haven’t yet managed to score in both halves. We’ll see if this problem in the efficiency has been resolved during this time off. Coach Nouri prefers the scheme that includes three centre-backs and two defensive midfielders that can operate along the flanks. Against HSV Bauer, Veljkovic and Moisander were those three defenders in front of goalie Pavlenka. Defensive midfielders were Gebre Selassie and Garcia while Kainz, Bargfrede, and Delaney operated in the central part of the field. Bartels and Belfodil started the game as centre-forwards. Three goals scored so far were authored by Fin Bartels, Thomas Delaney, and Lamine Sane while no player has recorded an assist in first seven games (only team in German Bundesliga). Passing segment belongs to defenders Robert Bauer and Milos Veljkovic with 232 and 221 total passes. Goalie Jiri Pavlenka has 28 saves and two games with clean sheets so far.
Max Kruse (collarbone) is expected to be back in mid-November while Justin Eilers (cruciate ligament) will probably be out of action until the start of the next year. Ishak Belfodil’s (Flu) and Eric Oelschlager’s (elbow) status is unknown while Jerome Gondorf (shoulder) is listed as day to day. Theodor Gebre Selassie (toe) is back in training and will be in the squad on Sunday.
BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH
The Borussia Monchengladbach team managed to bounce back in the last round after that crushing 6:1 defeat at Signal Iduna Park by Borussia Dortmund in round 6. They inflicted the first defeat of the season to the biggest surprise of the season so far, Hannover 96 team that just got promoted to the top tier of German soccer (2:1). Monchengladbach currently ranks at No. 7 spot in the league table with 11 points in seven matchups with a 3-2-2 record and 10-12 goal difference.
Every road game so far had over 3.5 goals in total while 33% of those road matches had over 4.5 goals in total. Also, every road contest had over 2.5 goals at half-time. High-scoring games are the modus operandi for the Foals this season and now they’ll face the team that is the exact opposite to them in this segment. In 33% of the road games, Monchengladbach players managed to score at least one goal in both halves while in 67% of those duels they managed to concede at least one goal in both halves. 57% of Borussia’s total matches have seen both teams scored. Dieter Hecking’s favorite scheme is traditional 4-4-2 and that was the case against Hannover in last round. Wendt, Vestergaard, Ginter, and Elvedi are usual starters on the defensive line while Johnson, Kramer, Cuisance, and Hazard operate mostly in the midfield. Raffael and Stindl usually start as centre-forwards. Thorgan Hazard, Raffael and Lars Stindl top the team in scoring with two goals each while Nico Elvedi, Matthias Ginter, Oscar Wendt and Denis Zakaria all have one each. Stindl, Elvedi, Zakaria and Michael Cuisance also collected one assist each. Passing segment belongs to midfielder Christoph Kramer with 373 total passes while goalies Yan Sommer and Tobias Sippel have 19 saves and two games with clean sheets combined.
Laszlo Benes who broke his foot at the beginning of last month should be back in action in mid-December while Tobias Strobl (cruciate ligament) is expected to be back in February next year. Raul Marcelo Bobadilla’s (hip) status is unknown while Kwame Yeboah (muscle), Ibrahima Traore (thigh), Josip Drmic (knee) and Mamadou Doucoure (thigh) are all back in training.
SV Werder Bremen vs. Borussia Monchengladbach – Match Prediction
Last year the Monchengladbach team was much more successful as they’ve managed to record two wins against their next opponent. In Bremen, the result after the final whistle was 0:1 while in Monchengladbach Borussia outscored Werder 5:1 inflicting them one of the worst road defeats last season. Aforementioned lack of potency of Werder team should’ve been addressed during this international break and by my opinion, at least one goal scored by both teams should be a no-brainer here. When it comes to the total number of goals I would go with over in this game. The final result is even trickier but for those who are willing to take chances, the first win of the season for the home team sounds like a possible outcome and for those even braver, the final result could be 2:1 for the host. If they emerge victorious in front of their own crowd, the fans’ faith in the team might get a bit restored but Werder is still far from being comfortable with its position and form in the league.
My pick: Over 3 goals (+110)
Additional Pick: Werder Bremen to win (+190)
