Facts on the Bremen game

Berlin – Over the last week, they have been working together to try to book their country a place at the World Cup. On Sunday, they’ll be opponents as  Hertha BSC and Werder Bremen go head-to-head. We are, of course, talking about the Czech pair of Vladimir Darida and Theodor Gebre Selassie. After the international break, the Bundesliga is ready to reclaim centre stage and below, you’ll find all the most interesting stats and facts on Sunday’s match.

Statistics: It's fair to say Hertha’s recent record against Werder is quite underwhelming. You have to go back seven games to find the capital club’s last victory over the team from the north, who won both of the last two meetings between the sides. In December 2016, they won 1-0 at the Olympiastadion, and 2-0 in Bremen in the return fixture. Ahead of the 68th league meeting between both teams, the overall head-to-head is in Werder’s favour, with 35 wins, 14 draws and 19 losses. The last time the Blue-Whites claimed three points against SVW was in December 2013, when Ramos (2) and Ronny led Jos Luhukay’s men to a 3-2 win.

Worth noting: As the stats tell you, Werder are anything but a favourable opponent for Hertha BSC. The Blue-Whites have only suffered more defeats to Bayern (38) than to Bremen (35), while Bayern (150) and Werder (122) are also the two teams to have scored the most goals against Hertha. Luckily however, football isn’t played on paper, and Hertha will take confidence knowing that they’ve won all six of their Sunday games over the last two seasons.

Referee: It is set to be a historic game, as a female referee will officiate a Bundesliga match for the first time ever. Bibiana Steinhaus, a 38-year old police woman from Lower Saxony, has already overseen almost 250 competitive games in her refereeing career, including a couple of Hertha games in the second division in the 2010/11 season. One of those matches was a 0-0 draw against Alemannia Aachen, while the other was a 2-1 win against FC Augsburg.