Werder Bremen were beaten 1-0 at home by Cologne on Friday night. A goal on the hour mark from Anthony Ujah was enough to see Cologne leave the Weserstadion with all three points and leave Bremen rooted to the foot of the German Bundesliga.
Robin Dutt's men have yet to win a single game all season and with only four points from the first nine games of the Bundesliga campaign, his future is looking increasingly insecure having himself stated prior to kick-off that a win would be the only acceptable result. It was with that in mind, and backed by a sizeable crowd, that Bremen went to work on trying to pick up that elusive first win of the season.
Their build-up play was promising while they held possession well, doing practically everything right but get into decent shooting positions. Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn was not put to the test even once in the first half, although Raphael Wolf at the other end was called into action to deny Daniel Halfar on the counter-attack.
Bremen started the second half equally brightly with Zlatko Junuzovic's shot tipped over the bar with Horn finally called into action. A tactical change by Cologne coach Peter Stoger brought an instant result. Striker Ujah was sent on for midfielder Halfar, and within a minute he had the ball in the back of the net.
Dusan Svento's first attempt to cross was blocked and the ball came back to him, so he tried again, this time getting to the goal line before pulling the ball back for Ujah to thread a shot through the legs of Wolf. It was perhaps symbolic of Bremen's plight that Izet Hajrovic's shot struck the post and rebounded to safety with Horn beaten a minute later.
Dutt had to gamble and he sent on Nils Petersen, Theodor Gebre Selassie and, later, Davie Selke with attack the only option. Cologne held firm, though, as Bremen failed to find a way through, Cologne even wasting a few good chances to seal things on the break.
Source: FIFA.com