Werder slide continues

The Green Whites start to the Rückrunde continues on downward as they went down in defeat to Schalke 04 1-0. While blame cannot solely rest on the loss of Diego and Claudio Pizarro, finishing again is to blame as Werder had countless opportunities but couldn't close out.

Schalke, as has been the case under Fred Rutten, played very cautious and was in no mood to let the match get open. Efforts were mostly seeing-eye types, long range speculations with little chance such as Alexandros Tziolis shot from outside the box after fifteen minutes. At the half hour Hugo Almeida tried pretty much the same but it was very obvious that Schalke was locking down the match as best as it could.

After the break, the home side took a leader early when Benedikt Höwedes headed in a set play and with a 1-0 lead, Schalke tightened up play. Six minutes before the hour Markus Rosenberg tried his chances for the right side of the box but his attempt was saved by the Schalke goalkeeper. Being more aggressive Werder started to have a number of respectable chances, Torsten Frings cross to Per Mertesacker was headed wide before the hour and Naldo's free-kick with twenty-one minutes remaining but each came up empty. Desperation was a obvious theme amongst Werder as in the final minutes Tim Wiese crashed forward into the Schalke end but they coundn't break through and in the end came home with its second consecutive defeat.