Werder Bremen v Vfb Stuttgart
Football : Germany : Bundesliga
Weser-Stadion
Saturday, 6th March 2010 – kickoff 15:30

Werder Bremen

Werder Bremen stayed in the race for the top four spots after they won last week 2-1 away against Mainz and ended their unbeaten home run. It was a great week for Werder Bremen as they also progressed in the Round of 16 in the Europa League last week, and now their goal is to surpass Borussia Dortmund who are only one point above them sitting at the fifth place on the table.

Coach Thomas Schaaf had problems holding trainings this week as he had to work only with small group of players due to many injuries in the team and players absent because of national team duties.

Per Mertesacker und Mesut Ozil were in the starting line up in the German squad against Argentina during midweek and especially Mertesacker had a great game proving his very good form recently. Hugo Almeida scored for Portugal in the friendly match against China and he will be in the attack together with Claudio Pizarro. Claudio Pizarro is also in a good form and he is the best striker in the team with ten goals scored so far. Marko Marin, Aaron Hunt, Torsten Frings and Mesut Ozil will take their places in the midfield; while in the back line will be the defensive duo Naldo-Mertesacker.

The team is completed with the return to individual trainings of the goalkeeper Tim Wiese who was out due to muscle strain but his place in the starting line up for this match is still doubtful. Clemens Fritz is unavailable due to back problems.

Vfb Stuttgart

Vfb Stuttgart continued climbing on the table with last week`s away 2-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt. It is interesting how this team has turned their form by 360 degrees ever since the departure of Marcus Babel as head coach. In the first part of the season they were right at the bottom with Hertha Berlin and when Christian Gross took over in charge as a manager now they are fighting for place in Europe. They are currently eight at the table with 34 points, ten points away from Champions League spot and only six points behind the fourth place.

Cacau scored the two goals against Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend and received the Player of the Month award with 85% of the votes of the German journalists and football workers.

For this match the Mexican international Ricardo Osorio is doubtful whether he will travel to Bremen or not due to an exhausting long trip back from California, where Mexico faced New Zealand in a friendly match.

Jehns Lehman`s replacement the goalkeeper Sven Ulreich will be replaced in the team as he had suffered broken bone injury in the knee during midweek International duty with Iceland national team and he will be out of the team six to eight weeks, which means this season is over for him.

Cacau and Pogrebnyak will take their places in the attack while Gebhart and Hleb will be at the wings.

The Betting Verdict

Werder Bremen had a great month as they went unbeaten in February (three wins and one draw), after their poor start with three straight losses in January. Werder Bremen are highly offensive team as they have scored massive 48 goals so far and together with Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen they lead in that category.

Both teams have fantastic strikers in great form – Pizarro and Cacau who can easily score against any team. Cacau had scored seven goals in the last three matches, which is red alert for Werder Bremen`s defense.

The first match in Stuttgart ended in 2-0 win for Werder Bremen.

I think that both teams will go hard to get a win in this match, and that the strikers will have the main role again. The winner in this match is harder to predict as both teams are in fantastic form recently and have many great individuals that fit well in the team.I think that there will be few goals in this match and that we will enjoy watching another goal galore.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Werder Bremen 2-2 Vfb Stuttgart

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Over 2.5 goals