Jens Stage Salvages Crucial Point for Werder Bremen in German Relegation Fight

The home side’s sluggish start was perhaps inevitable, considering they battled through to extra time on Thursday to secure their place in a second consecutive DFB-Pokal final.

Bremen nearly shocked the hosts by taking an early lead, though Senne Lynen – still in search of his first goal in 92 Bundesliga matches – squandered two attempts, while Jens Stage later sent a header wide of the far post.

Ignoring those warnings, Stuttgart found themselves behind in the 18th minute as Stage, in excellent form, finished brilliantly with a low shot following a cutback from Yukinari Sugawara.

Bremen goalkeeper Mio Backhaus was kept busy, repelling a fierce header from Bilal El Khannouss and then collecting a deflected free-kick from Maximilian Mittelstädt. His finest save came during stoppage time when he turned away a curling effort from Deniz Undav, moments after Jovan Milošević wasted a golden opportunity to extend Bremen’s lead, shooting wide after outpacing Dan-Axel Zagadou.

Die Schwaben showed little improvement at the beginning of the second half, prompting Sebastian Hoeneß to make substitutions, bringing on Chris Führich and Ermedin Demirović from the bench.

This change proved pivotal, as just four minutes after his arrival, Demirović headed in El Khannouss’ cross to level the match. Although Bremen had lost much of their attacking threat post-break, they squandered a prime opportunity to restore their lead when Stage, left unmarked in the six-yard box, shot meekly at Alexander Nübel.

At the other end, Backhaus managed to parry a free-kick from Angelo Stiller as Bremen hung on for a draw, which sees them climb above three relegation rivals in the Bundesliga and creates a six-point gap to the bottom three.

This match marked their first point of the season against one of the current top five, while Stuttgart has now not won in three of their last four league matches.