"Good starting position": How many points does Werder need for Europe?

The focus is on the up: Will Werder still make it to Europe? IMAGO/Eibner

Ole Werner grammatically rehearsed his answer several times until he reached the correct form (pluperfect subjunctive): "We can draw level with Borussia Dortmund," said the SV Werder Bremen coach at the end of the 31st Bundesliga matchday - and corrected himself for the first time: "Could..." A second correction followed immediately: "...or could have."

In any case, according to the 36-year-old, it is "nothing that can be taken for granted" that Bremen could now actually have the same 48 points - like BVB, in sixth place in the table.

Only the home game on Sunday evening against FC St. Pauli ended 0-0 , Werder had to let Dortmund, after a last-minute victory in Sinsheim, ultimately pull away by two points.

It remains the case that Werder Bremen haven't even finished among the top six teams in the table this season – but that this (and thus European qualification) is still possible, still in eighth place. "It's a good starting position, because it's already been a good season," Werner emphasized, "and we're trying to improve it even further."

The fact that Werder, according to the coach, will go into these final games "with confidence" was not changed by the end of Bremen's recent winning streak (four games), nor by the fact that they "didn't really find their way into the game" in the first half against St. Pauli in particular.

After the half-time break, the hosts demonstrated once again that they had a playful reaction ready, although - with the exception of Oliver Burke's goal, which was narrowly ruled out for offside - they continued to lack efficiency.

And so, a key question in the Weserstadion afterward was what this 0-0 draw was worth? Werner took a similar view to his Hamburg coaching colleague Alexander Blessin ("The point could be worth its weight in gold in the end.") – who, however, had relegation in mind. The Werder coach, in turn, said, in light of the chance of a European qualification : "Who knows what this might still be important for..."

Whether this was a good matchday for Bremen, given that at least the clubs immediately behind them in the table (Gladbach, Augsburg, Stuttgart) had all lost, was somewhat sidestepped by head of professional football Peter Niemeyer: "Of course I would have liked to win... But I think we can live with the point."

And when asked how many points they still need to qualify for Europe in the last three matches (at Union Berlin, against Leipzig, and in Heidenheim), the 41-year-old replied: "I haven't looked into that yet. I can't say. Others are responsible for those calculations." He also added that Niemeyer was "not bad" at mathematics, by the way.