SV Werder Bremen
| 1-0 | Prödl | (30. Min) |
| 2-0 | Bartels | (57. Min) |
VfB Stuttgart
Oriol Romeu
Stats 
Oriol Romeu in a duel with Eljero Elia.
No joy in Bremen
In the first half of the game, VfB looked defensively solid and created several promising chances of their own, but from a Werder corner, Armin Veh’s men failed to clear their lines and the hosts took a half-time lead. The home side’s second goal, after the break, also resulted from a set-piece. Subsequently, VfB were unable to put the Green-Whites under any real pressure and were to be left empty-handed, with Werder securing a 2-0 win in front of their home fans.
Compared to last week’s clash with VfL Wolfsburg, Armin Veh made just one alteration to his starting eleven, with Gotoku Sakai coming in to fill the gap left by the injured Georg Niedermeier. The Japanese international took up the left full-back position, with Daniel Schwaab moving into the centre of defence and Florian Klein beginning on the right side of the back four. With Antonio Rüdiger calling the shots at the heart of the defence, VfB looked solid, preventing Werder front-men Eljero Elia and Franco Di Santo from creating anything of real value. Veh’s eleven created the first opening of the game on the twenty minute mark, with Sercan Sararer breaking on the right and firing a delivery across the face of goal, which Martin Harnik narrowly failed to make contact with thanks to a fortunate deflection from a Werder defender. It was then, during a phase in which VfB looked to be in complete charge at the back and ever more of an attacking threat, that the hosts took the lead. Zlatko Junuzovic swung in a corner delivery from the right and found Sebastian Prödl, who headed SV Werder into a 1-0 lead (30’).
Post match comments
Armin Veh: "The dead-ball situations are our problem. If we can’t avoid conceding such simple goals, we basically have no chance of winning these games." Post match comments
Bundesliga debut for Timo Baumgartl
Armin Veh’s men looked to find an immediate answer to the home side’s opener, and created a number of good openings before the break. Firstly captain Christian Gentner made contact with a cross from Sercan Sararer, but was unable to find the target with his header (31’), then Alexandru Maxim fired over from 18 meters out (34’) and Martin Harnik was denied at the end of a strong solo run by Werder keeper Raphael Wolf (38’). As a result, the ‘Cannstatt Boys’ went in at half-time trailing by 0-1.
After the restart, the visitors from Stuttgart looked to force the issue against an ever more defensively-minded host, but clear chances on goal failed to materialise. With their first chance of the second period, Bremen were ultimately effective and increased their lead. Again the danger was created by a corner, which was initially headed clear, but only as far as Fin Bartels, who immediately pulled the trigger, sending the ball fast friend and foe to make it 2-0 for Bremen from the edge of the box (57’). Armin Veh brought in Timo Werner in place of Sercan Sararer (63’) in the hope of adding some more attacking prowess. Just two minutes later, Timo Baumgartl then celebrated his Bundesliga debut, with the 18-year-old coming in for Daniel Schwaab (65’). The ‘Cannstatt Boys’ had subsequently more of the possession against the defensive hosts, who looked to hit on the break, but VfB were unable to carve any telling openings, with the best chance falling to Antonio Rüdiger from a Filip Kostic corner. The defenders header failed to find the mark (62’) and, at the end of the ninety minutes, Armin Veh’s men were left licking the wounds left by a 0-2 defeat.
