Niclas Füllkrug put on a thick jacket after the final whistle. In the fight for a World Cup place in the German national soccer team, his competitors may have to dress warmly.
The public discussion as to whether national coach Hansi Flick Werder should take Bremen’s top scorer to Qatar for the upcoming winter tournament is likely to continue.
In the 2-1 (1-1) at the start of the 9th Bundesliga matchday at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Friday evening, Füllkrug was once again the match winner with his late winning goal and an assist for the 1-0 lead – and stadium visitors Flick had the Watched closely from the grandstand.
“Fülle is the best striker we have right now – in the league and also the best German for me,” emphasized Bremen’s Austrian captain Marco Friedl after the somewhat fortunate win in Sinsheim. “It was clear to me that he would score,” said substitute Leonardo Bittencourt of the attacker. “He’s been doing well for weeks.”
“Decide others”
Füllkrug would do well to continue to concentrate on his job at the club and hide everything around it, said Werder coach Ole Werner. “Everything else is decided by others.” However, the numbers currently speak clearly for the striker, who once played for several German junior teams but has never played for the senior national team.
Füllkrug has already scored eight goals this season and thus played a key role in the strong start of the Hanseatic League. The promoted team is still unbeaten away from home this season and greets them from the top third of the table. “It’s clear that we can’t walk on water,” emphasized coach Werner after the second win in a row.
His team has to work hard for everything. “It wasn’t our best game, but the performance was okay for the 90 minutes,” he commented on the performance against Hoffenheim. Sometimes the people of Bremen just “depend on a little bit of luck”. And the nerve-racking jug.
Filling jug cool from the point
The 29-year-old converted the penalty kick in the 87th minute very coolly and thus secured the next three points for the final phase specialists from Bremen. Bremen had already scored late against Leverkusen (1-1), Bochum (2-0) and Stuttgart (2-2). In the spectacular 3:2 in Dortmund on the third day of the match, even three times from the 89th minute.
In Sinsheim, Füllkrug also impressed as a preparer. With a nice one-two he had put up the second goal of the season by his congenial strike partner Marvin Ducksch (18th). Munas Dabbur (32nd) scored the equalizer for TSG, who suffered their first home defeat of the season.
Just like after the furious 5-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach a week earlier, some Werder fans were already singing about the European Cup after beating Hoffenheim. This shows that “the people of Bremen have a bit of humor from time to time,” said coach Werner.
“I think that’s more what it means. We all know where we come from and what the general conditions are like here. The team is currently doing outstandingly.” Above all Knipser filling jug.
