Second-bottom Werder Bremen boosted their survival hopes by holding fourth-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach to a goalless draw.

Werder Bremen 0-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Both sides began well in Bremen, with the hosts having a great chance to opening the scoring in the opening 15 minutes. Josh Sargent’s brilliant dummy allowed Davy Klaassen to hit a shot at goal which, after taking a deflection, was saved by Yann Sommer. Gladbach were playing a three-man defence, allowing Stefan Lainer and Oscar Wendt to push forward down either flank and that’s where their first chance of the game came from. Florian Neuhaus, though, hit his shot wide after being found by Marcus Thuram. The Gladbach midfielder had another opportunity to break the deadlock before half-time, thundering a powerful strike at goal from the edge of the Bremen box, but Jiri Pavlenka was equal to it with a strong save to keep the scores level.

Werder came out of the blocks faster in the second half, but getting past Sommer was never going to be easy. The Bundesliga’s leading shot-stopper made an outstanding double save early on, first from Milot Rashica’s free-kick and then from Sargent’s rebound across goal. Bremen continued to have the better of the chances, with Sargent almost making the most of a mistake on the ball from Sommer, only to see his effort blocked by Stefan Lainer in front of goal. Leonardo Bittencourt fired just over the Gladbach crossbar, before Neuhaus curled an equally strong effort just wide of the Bremen goal in the final 15 minutes. The home side piled on the pressure as Davie Selke made Sommer work, but the goal that would have taken Werder level on points with 16th-placed Fortuna Düsseldorf was not forthcoming.

Match stats

• This was the first 0-0 draw between the two teams dates since March 1998.
• Werder have gone unbeaten in two consecutive Bundesliga games for the first time in 2020.
• Werder have won only one of the last 15 Bundesliga games against Gladbach and are currently on a nine-match winless run (D3, L6) since their last victory over Borussia in the 2-1 win at home on 30 August 2015.
• Alassane Plea has been Gladbach's most potent attacking force this season with nine goals and eight assists, and the Frenchman hit his first - and to date, only - Bundesliga hat-trick against Bremen in October, 2018. He hasn't scored against Werder in the three matches since.
• Only Jupp Heynckes (17) has scored more goals in this Bundesliga fixture than Raffael (seven), while Stindl has also hit seven Bundesliga goals against Werder in the colours of Karlsruher, Hannover and Gladbach.

Watch: Sargent: "You can definitely see our passion"

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Line-ups

Bremen: Pavlenka - Gebre Selassie, Veljkovic, Moisander (c), Friedl - M. Eggestein, Groß, Klaassen, - Osako (Bittencourt 62'), Sargent (Selke 74'), Rashica (Bartels 86')
Unused subs: Kapino, Lang, Augustinsson, Langkamp, Gruev, Woltemade
Out: Füllkrug (torn ACL), Möhwald (knee), Pizarro (thigh), Toprak (calf), Vogt (hip)
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt

Gladbach: Sommer – Jantschke (Bensebaini 71'), Ginter, Elvedi – Lainer, Kramer (Benes 82'), Neuhaus, Wendt - Stindl (c) (Hofmann 71'), Thuram (Herrmann 82') - Plea
Unused subs: Sippel, Doucoure, Raffael, Traore, Quizera
Out: Embolo (ankle), Johnson (muscular), Strobl (hamstring), Zakaria (knee)
Coach: Marco Rose

Watch: Kramer: "It was a fair draw"

About the clubs

SV Werder Bremen

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Borussia Mönchengladbach

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