Werder Bremen desperately need to win their opening game, not only to make amends for the disappointing league campaign last term, but also for the embarrassing exit from DFB Pokal at the hands of Hidenheim. Kaiserslautern, on the other hand, are hoping to repeat the results from last season, when they finished the league campaign in 7th place.

Werder looking to improve

Coming on the back of a very disappointing season, Werder are clearly looking to show a massive improvement this term and they see to have a lot of room for improvement. The club have big ambitions this season and they have really reinforced the squad this summer, bringing the likes of Lukas Schmitz, Mehmet Ekici, Aleksandar Ignjovski, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Andreas Wolf. Seeing that Petri Pasanen and Torsten Frings were the only notable departures, the team look stronger than last term. Thomas Schaaf’s men managed to restore the lost confidence by beating Everton in their final preparation game, with the win helping neutralize the negative effects of the Cup defeat to Heidenheim. That game showed that things are slowly falling into place, so I expect a convincing performance from Werder in their opening game against Kaiserslautern.

Key striker Claudio Pizarro is set to resume full training, although he will not be in contention for this match, just like Tim Borowski, who is out with an ankle problem. Clemens Fritz should feature despite carrying an Achilles injury.

Kaiserslautern hoping to repeat last season

The German giants managed to return to the elite division last term after spending four years in Bundesliga 2 and they largely impressed in their first league campaign upon the return to the top flight, finishing the season in 7th place in the Bundesliga standings. Die Rotten Teufel couldn’t prevent star striker Srdjan Lakic from leaving the club this summer, but they did sign several interesting players in Vermouth, Sukuta-Pasu, Sahan, Kouemaha and Shechter, although they are yet to prove they can make it at the big stage. In spite of some very good showings from last season, it looks as though Kaiserslautern still lack some quality as well as experience to be able to match the best sides in the league, and they are likely to face problems against very good Werder side.

Adam Nemec, Jan Simunek and Alexander Bugera are unavailable, while the game comes too soon for new signing Gil Vermouth.

Verdict

Werder are looking really good this season and the friendly win over Everton proves they are on the right track. Kaiserslautern are highly unlikely to repeat the displays from last season and even though they look to be in good form, I don’t think FCK can avoid defeat in this match.

Our prediction: Home win

Odds: 1.91 (10/11)

Bookmaker: William Hill