On Friday evening, Aue travels to Bremen as underdogs despite form highs on paper. Against the small wonder package from the Weser, Erzgebirge veteran Marc Hensel is also counting on the current happenings at the opponent’s side.
Successful weeks lie behind Erzgebirge Aue. They have won three of their last six games and were only beaten by Darmstadt and Regensburg, who were in a much better position. Things were quite different at the Weser, where Werder Bremen had to deal with vaccination passports, positive Corona tests and the search for a new coach and could only bag one success in the same period. Nevertheless, for Aue’s team manager Marc Hensel, the role of favourites on Friday lies more with the Hanseatic city. “Bremen can muster a first league line-up in terms of personnel,” he praised the Green-Whites’ squad.
“Unpredictable thing” in Bremen
Nevertheless, it is “an unpredictable thing”, as Bremen have “one or two injuries and illnesses” to mourn. Ognjen Gnjatic, Gaetan Bussmann, Ramzi Ferjani, Florian Ballas and Ben Zolinski are all out injured, while Clemens Fandrich is still suspended – as is Hensel himself: “Pavel is on the line, but of course we are in contact so that we can constantly exchange information during the game,” said Hensel about how to deal with his absence from “a great opponent with a great stadium”.
Preparing for this one had been difficult for his team because of the new coach at the Weser. “Werner has had a short period of time to get to know the team. We tried to take all eventualities into account,” said Hensel, who does not expect a revolution from the new man on the Bremen sidelines either: “He represents a similar basic interpretation of football as Markus Anfang.” In addition, he said, Bremen are “seasoned first division professionals who can handle it and are not experiencing it for the first time. “
Using contingencies
However, the turmoil of the recent past could also be an opportunity for his team: “We hope that maybe not everything is rehearsed yet. Then we will try to use the one or two per cent that might still be missing, if at all, under all circumstances.
