Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen: Bundesliga Monday betting preview & free tip

Free football tips, bets and analysis for the Bundesliga.

Best bet

Bayer Leverkusen to win & under 3.5 goals
(BT Sport 1, 7.30pm)
1pt 33-20 Coral

Match preview

The German Bundesliga had been out of action for two months prior to this weekend but relegation-threatened Werder Bremen cannot afford to take their time getting back into the swing of things.

Bremen have endured a miserable season and their 39-year stay in the Bundesliga is under serious threat with nine matches to play.

Young manager Florian Kohfeldt, who has been involved with the club since 2006, has been given more time than most would expect and could lack the experience to improve the squad's morale in the current bizarre circumstances.

Bremen will face Leverkusen with no fans watching on but they were hardly setting the world alight with spectators in the stands - Werder have lost their last six matches at the Weserstadion and have taken only five points from their 11 home assignments this term.

They have hardly been better on the road and going into the season's resumption, Bremen had scored the fewest goals in the division (27) and conceded the most (55), and could be cannon fodder for a Leverkusen unit who were on fire before the hiatus.

Going into the weekend only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund had collected more points in 2020 than Leverkusen (19), who are in hot pursuit of a Champions League berth.

Their attack is weakened by the loss of Kevin Volland but goals have been spread across their front line this season and Bremen could struggle to keep tabs on starlet Kai Havertz, who became the youngest ever player to reach 30 Bundesliga goals before the break.

Peter Bosz's men have had no issue polishing off the league's lesser lights, beating struggling trio Mainz, Paderborn and Fortuna Dusseldorf by an aggregate scoreline of 8-1 since the turn of the year and it is difficult to envisage anything other than a Leverkusen triumph.

Bremen will be missing a key creative outlet in Davy Klaasen, who is suspended, while veteran striker Claudio Pizarro is out and star loanee defender Omer Toprak is also expected to be sidelined.

The absences of Klaasen and Pizarro only intensifies the attacking burden on Kosovan star and top scorer Milot Rashica, the silencing of whom should all but quash any threat of an upset.

Bookmakers' 8-11 offered for a Leverkusen win is worth considering but for better value punters should opt for the visitors to come out on top in a match featuring under 3.5 goals, with Bremen having fired blanks in four of their last six fixtures.

Leverkusen's fluid attacking movements are sure to be a touch rusty after the break and that should put punters off a thrashing but they should claim three points nonetheless and nudge Bremen, who have won only four league matches all season, closer to the drop.

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