After the gripping cup fight that ended in a thriller on penalties, both coaches kept shaking their heads. Paderborn’s Lukas Kwasniok simply couldn’t believe his luck with the coup against Werder Bremen, while guest coach Ole Werner simply didn’t want to believe that he had failed in the second round at a second division team. “Some guys just weren’t on the pitch,” Werner scolded after the 4-5 (2-2, 2-2, 0-2) penalty shoot-out at SC Paderborn on Wednesday on ARD. His team was on the verge of turning a weak game.
But Werder didn’t manage more than Niclas Füllkrug’s missed goal in extra time after catching up in the second half. Leonardo Bittencourt was the only one to miss in the penalty lottery. He had started the race to catch up with his goal to make it 2-1 (65th minute) shortly after being substituted on. “It started great, it ended crappy,” Bittencourt commented drastically on his performance. “I just screwed it up.”
Without the suspended striker Marvin Ducksch, the Bremen team had not found their way into the game at first. Felix Platte (22nd) and Sirlord Conteh (43rd) shot the promotion aspirants from the lower house for a 2-0 lead at the break. “We were still well served with that,” complained Werner, who had suspended Niclas Füllkrug’s strike partner Ducksch for the cup game for “disciplinary reasons”.
That didn’t do Bremen’s game any good. With Scotsman Oliver Burke in his starting XI debut for the Bundesliga side, Werder was not dangerous for a long time. It only got exciting in the second half after Bittencourt’s deflected shot to score the goal. Mitchell Weiser then headed the Bundesliga promoted into overtime (85′).
There, Füllkrug’s supposed goal to make it 3:2 caused a stir. There was said to have been a foul play before a corner kick was taken. Referee Frank Willenborg disallowed the goal after consultation with fourth official Frederick Assmuth. “I can’t understand it when I know that the fourth official who is 50 meters away decides that,” said Füllkrug. “I haven’t seen that before.”
SCP Paderborn trainer Kwasniok countered the excitement on the Werder bench: “If you have 60 meters as the crow flies as a trainer, then you should hold back a bit.” Kwasniok now wants to use the momentum of the cup victory for the league. “That can release forces again,” said the coach of the second division second.
DFB Cup
