Werder Bremen vs SV Darmstadt 1898 Prediction: Werder Bremen to win this game

On Saturday afternoon, the top-seeded Werder Bremen will host SV Darmstadt 98 at the Weserstadion. The two teams are at opposed ends of the league standings, thus the hosts will be looking for another win against a team headed for relegation.

Darmstadt visits the Weserstadion to play Werder Bremen on Saturday, they will be seeking to ignite their comeback from the bottom of the Bundesliga standings. Ole Werner's team will want to defeat the visitors and move closer to the European qualifying spots after losing 4-2 in the rematch in October. With a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Koln at the RheinEnergieStadion last Friday, Werder Bremen continued their campaign for a spot in Europe. This came after their three-game winning streak was ended on February 10 by a fairly depressing 2-1 home loss to Heidenheim.

Werder Bremen, with 29 points from 22 games, is now four points behind sixth-place Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga standings and a potential position in the UEFA Europa Conference League. However, Darmstadt was unable to halt the damage as they lost 2-1 to 10-man Stuttgart last weekend at the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor. 

Since October's 4-2 friendly victory against Elversberg, Torsten Lieberknecht's team has now gone 16 games without a win in all competitions, losing 11 and drawing five. Darmstadt is presently anchored to the bottom of the standings, 10 points from safety, having only managed to accumulate 12 points from their 22 Bundesliga games thus far.

Ole Werner's Werder are now strongly positioned to compete for a spot in Europe the next season after finding their form at the perfect time of year. Werder appears capable of chasing Eintracht Frankfurt in sixth place, even if the DFB-Pokal champion takes the last European slot rather than seventh.

Bremen has won four of their previous five Bundesliga games, and the only team with more points in the last nine games is Bayer Leverkusen. That run began with an impressive victory away to Bayern Munich, which was followed by victories against Freiburg, another team chasing Europe. Werder then moved up to seventh place after two calm and easy victories over Mainz and Koln, two teams that were in danger of relegation.

In the matchup that followed their victory over Bremen, Darmstadt defeated Augsburg; but, since then, they have not triumphed; last weekend's 2-1 loss to Stuttgart brought their winless streak to fifteen.

Torsten Lieberknecht, the manager, will have been immensely upset that his team did not come away with anything from that match against Stuttgart, especially as their opponents played the whole second-half man-light. His team managed just five points out of a potential forty-five in that time. The visitors' task will not get any simpler either, as they will be facing one of the league's most formidable teams and will have to contend with back-to-back matches in March against RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich.

The most Darmstadt can hope for, given their present position four points behind Koln, who are now out of the relegation playoff slot, is to catch up to them. The team is currently 10 points behind Borussia Monchengladbach, barely above the drop zone.

Werder Bremen will be thrilled to play Darmstadt, who have been completely disappointing this season and are relegation contenders, on Saturday. Unless there is a major upset, Darmstadt's record of 15 games without a win is likely to continue, especially considering Werder's excellent recent play.

Going into the weekend, Werner's team has already won four of their previous five games, and we expect them to easily win all three points once more. The hosts are heavy favourites to strengthen their challenge for the top six here after moving into European contention with four victories out of five.