Bremen missing numbers

Posted Thursday, November 05, 2009 by PA

Werder Bremen could be without several senior players for Thursday's Europa League clash with Austria Vienna.

Midfielder Torsten Frings will definitely miss the Group L encounter after tearing muscle fibres in Saturday's 2-2 Bundesliga draw with Nurnberg, while strikers Claudio Pizarro and Hugo Almeida are doubts.

Pizarro has been suffering from an ankle injury, while long-term absentee Almeida may still not be ready to return.

The absence of Pizarro, who scored both goals for Bremen in their 2-2 draw in Vienna two weeks ago and has netted four times in three group games in total, will certainly be keenly felt.

"There is a big question mark next to Claudio's involvement on Thursday," coach Thomas Schaaf said on www.werder.de.

He added: "Hugo has trained for a long time now, but I still have to think about whether he will be in the squad on Thursday. We have to wait and see if it makes sense."

Tim Borowski is expected to return from a foot problem to fill in for Frings.

Bremen go into the game at the Weserstadion top of the group with seven points from three games, five more than their opponents.

But they conceded twice in the last 17 minutes to surrender their 100% record in the pool last time out against Austria.

The visitors have lost their last two games in the Austrian Bundesliga, but Bremen midfielder and Austria international Sebastian Prodl, who also faces a race to be fit, is not expecting an easy game.

"You cannot compare their meetings in the Austrian League with an international game," Prodl said.

"Thursday is a whole other game for Austria. They got a lot of self belief from the last half hour in the first game and have seen that something is possible for them when we are not paying attention.

"Therefore we have to go into the game on Thursday with full concentration and can't underestimate them."

Austria lost their only previous away game in the group 3-0 to Athletic Bilbao and another defeat tomorrow night will leave them depending on other results if they are to progress.