With three wins in friendlies, the Werkself start the final run-in to the opening match of the second half of the season against Borussia Mönchengladbach in eight days time (19 January, 15.30 CET). Following straight on from the 3-1 win against Dutch top-flight club Zwolle, The second line-up of the Werkself came out on top on late Friday afternoon – this time against the club lying seventh in the third division. Head coach Peter Bosz divided his squad into two teams for the two friendlies. "As we had two friendlies on the same day today, all the players can recover tomorrow and we will start the same training programme for all the players next week. That's better for the build-up to the Gladbach game," explained the 55-year-old coach.
While the Zwolle match was open to the Werkself supporters, the game against the team from Münster was played in constant drizzle behind closed doors at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The visitors appeared unimpressed and made a bright start: With just three minutes on the clock, the Bayer 04 keeper Ramazan Özcan had to pick the ball out of his own net as he was unable to save a shot from Philipp Hoffmanns – 1-0 to the visitors. There was a prompt response from the Black and Reds: A cross into the penalty area from Isaac Kiese Thelin saw Lucas Alario rise highest to head home an equaliser (7').
The match developed into an entertaining encounter with goalmouth action at both ends. There was a bit of a wait for the next goal. On 33 minutes, Münster's Cyrill Akono left both Tin Jedvaj and Özcan standing as he put the visitors back in front. The Werkself refused to give up and Paulinho came to the fore. The 18-year-old Brazilian held his nerve in a one-on-one with the SCP keeper Oliver Schnitzler and he levelled the scores at 2-2 (40'). Shortly after that, Kiese Thelin Hammered a right-foot shot into the top corner from the edge of the box to give the Werkself a 3-2 lead at half-time. "Münster played really well going forward in the first half and they were very strong physically. But we did well again. We went behind twice with both goals due to our mistakes. But the team refused to be downhearted, carried on and scored good goals," summed up Bosz.
The tempo of the game remain high in the second half. The Werkself had better control over the third division side and more of the game. That was reflected in the chances that Tin Jedvaj (47'), Dominik Kohr (53', 55') and Kiese Thelin (61', 74') failed to convert. On 75 minutes, Paulinho again showed how it should be done when he exploited a slip in the Münster defence and succeeded in making it 4-2. Shortly after that, the Werkself number seven had another great chance to score his third goal after a brilliant pass from Kohr but the SCP keeper Schnitzler was able to punch his shot away. The game ended in a deserved 4-2 victory. "We did better in the second half and made fewer mistakes than in the first. But mistakes happen in football. And it's better for the mistakes to happen today rather than next week against Gladbach," said the Werkself coach who spoke of a "good, first week" after the game.
After a recovery session on Saturday (14.30 CET), the Werkself have a double shift on Monday (10.30 and 14.30 CET) – and then the focus will be on next Saturday's league clash with the Rhine rivals from Mönchengladbach.
Bayer 04: Özcan (Kirschbaum 46') – Weiser, Jedvaj (Stanilewicz 70'), Dragovic, Bednarczyk – Baumgartlinger – Kohr, Schreck (Wolf 70') – Kiese Thelin, Alario, Paulinho
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