Can Werder Bremen beat Bayer Leverkusen?

Can Werder Bremen restart their relegation battle with a win over Bayern Leverkusen, at 7.30pm on BT Sport 1?

A regular member of the top 3 in the mid- to late-noughties, and a solid mid-table club since then, Werder have fallen of a cliff this season.

In 2018/19, they finished in 8th, missing out on Europa League qualification by a point. Now they find themselves in 17th place, on track for a return to the 2. Bundesliga without a real turnaround. They’ve got a mere 4 wins all season, and only one in 2020, January’s 1-0 victory against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

The one thing they have going for them is that they have 2 games in hand over 16th place Fortuna, but with only 5 points separating the 2 sides. And that’s a potentially massive lifeline. As, unlike in the Premier League, only the Bundesliga’s bottom 2 are automatically relegated. The side that finishes in 16th place faces the 2nd division’s bronze medalists in a relegation play-off.

One of Werder’s games in hand will come against Eintracht Frankfurt; the other is this Monday, as Bayer Leverkusen travel to the Wesser-Stadion.

Sat in 5th, Die Werkself find themselves at the outside of the push for a spot in the Champions League next season. Currently they are in 5th place on 47 points – that’s 4 points behind RB Leipzig and 5 off Monchengladbach (Bayern Munich are 11 points ahead in 1st place).Crucially, Leverkusen have a game in hand over those sides, meaning they can greatly reduce their deficit with a win this Monday.

Leverkusen have picked up some big results this season, including a 2-1 victory at Bayern Munich, and a thrilling 4-3 win over Borussia Dortmund.

What they are perhaps lacking, however, is a Lewandowski, Werner or Haaland. Kevin Volland is their top scorer in the league with just 9 goals, and he is out injured, leaving Kai Havertz and Lucas Alario as their best options on 6 goals apiece. They sit at SMM spreads of 31-37 and 41-48 respectively. In comparison Werder have Milot Raschica on 7 league goals and a SMM spread of 21-26.

When these sides last met, back at the end of October, the game ended in a 2-2 draw, including goals for Alario and Raschica. This time out, Spreadex is offering a Leverkusen/Werder Bremen (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.7-0.9, alongside a Total Goals spread of 3-3.2.