Werder out to get back on track

A 2-2 draw at FK Austria Wien on Matchday 3 slowed Werder Bremen's Group L progress, but a home win against the same opponents will book the German club a place in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase, provided CD Nacional drop points against Athletic Club Bilbao.

Previous meetings
• Austria Wien's only previous meeting with Bremen proved to be a bruising experience for Norbert Hof's side as they were beaten 5-0 by Otto Rehhagel's men in the away leg of a 1989/90 UEFA Cup second-round tie before winning the home return 2-0.

• The teams for that first meeting in Bremen on 18 October 1989 were:-
Bremen: Reck, Bockenfeld, Otten, Bratseth, Kutzop, Hermann (Votava, 74), Eilts, Rufer, Riedle, Neubarth, Meier (Borowka, 46).
Austria Wien: Wohlfahrt, Aigner, Künast, Sekerlioglu, Zsak, Hörmann, Ogris, Frind, Prosenik, Báez, Hasenhüttl (Pleva, 64).

• Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf played in the second leg of that tie but not the first.

Match background
• Aside from that fixture 20 years ago, Bremen's other two games at home against Austrian sides ended in a 3-1 loss to Linzer ASK in the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup and a 1-1 draw with SK Austria Kärnten in the semi-finals of the same competition in 2003.

• Austria's record in ten games on German soil is W2 D1 L7, with ten goals scored and 24 conceded. The only teams they avoided losing to were from the former East Germany prior to reunification: they won and drew at Berliner FC Dynamo as well as beating Schweriner SC.

• Bremen have lost only one of their last seven European home games, a 1-0 defeat by Hamburger SV in last season's UEFA Cup semi-finals.

• Austria have gone 14 games without a European away win since a 2-1 UEFA Cup second qualifying round triumph at MŠK Žilina on 11 August 2005.

Team facts
• Bremen are still under the command of Schaaf, who represented the club as a defender from 1978-95, stayed on as a coach and eventually took charge of the first team in 1999.

• Schaaf won two Bundesliga titles, two German Cups and the 1991/92 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup as a Bremen player. As a coach he has won one league title, three German Cups and led his side to last season's UEFA Cup final, only to lose out to FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

• Austria Wien boss Karl Daxbacher won six caps as a midfielder for his country in a playing career during which he spent 14 years at the club he now serves as coach. He returned to take the reins in 2008, following a spell in charge at LASK Linz.

• As a player, Daxbacher scored the first of his three goals in UEFA club competition against a German side. The 23rd-minute strike turned out to be the winner as Austria Wien beat VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0 in a European Champion Clubs' Cup first round tie on 15 September 1976. It was also the club's first goal against a German team.

• Daxbacher's first games in European competition as a coach also saw him face German opposition, as his SC Krems side lost 5-0 at FC Carl Zeiss Jena, before a 1-0 win at home in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

• Austria Wien's Senegalese forward Mamadou Diabang and Bremen goalkeeper Christian Vander were team-mates at VfL Bochum 1848 from 2003 to 2006.

• Bremen boast Austrian talent in the form of international defender Sebastian Prödl, who played alongside Austria Wien midfielder Thomas Krammer at SK Sturm Graz from 2006-08.

• Austria Wien's Czech striker Tomáš Jun has been ruled out until 2010 after damaging cruciate ligaments.

• Bremen's Claudio Pizarro goes into the game as the joint-highest scorer in the group stage, having scored four times (two of them in Vienna) along with Athletic Club Bilbao's Fernando Llorente.

• Austria host Athletic on Matchday 5, with Bremen at home to CD Nacional on the same day, 3 December.