Team news

Bremen missing numbers Werder Bremen could be without several senior players for Thursday's Europa League clash with Austria Vienna.

Midfielder Torsten Frings will definitely miss the Group L encounter after tearing muscle fibres in Saturday's 2-2 Bundesliga draw with Nurnberg, while strikers Claudio Pizarro and Hugo Almeida are doubts.

Pizarro has been suffering from an ankle injury, while long-term absentee Almeida may still not be ready to return.

The absence of Pizarro, who scored both goals for Bremen in their 2-2 draw in Vienna two weeks ago and has netted four times in three group games in total, will certainly be keenly felt.

"There is a big question mark next to Claudio's involvement on Thursday," coach Thomas Schaaf said on www.werder.de.

He added: "Hugo has trained for a long time now, but I still have to think about whether he will be in the squad on Thursday. We have to wait and see if it makes sense." Tim Borowski is expected to return from a foot problem to fill in for Frings.

Bremen go into the game at the Weserstadion top of the group with seven points from three games, five more than their opponents.

But they conceded twice in the last 17 minutes to surrender their 100% record in the pool last time out against Austria.

The visitors have lost their last two games in the Austrian Bundesliga, but Bremen midfielder and Austria international Sebastian Prodl, who also faces a race to be fit, is not expecting an easy game.

"You cannot compare their meetings in the Austrian League with an international game," Prodl said.

"Thursday is a whole other game for Austria. They got a lot of self belief from the last half hour in the first game and have seen that something is possible for them when we are not paying attention.

"Therefore we have to go into the game on Thursday with full concentration and can't underestimate them." Austria lost their only previous away game in the group 3-0 to Athletic Bilbao and another defeat tomorrow night will leave them depending on other results if they are to progress.

Werder Bremen vs FK Austria Vienna

Last modified 22:32 05/11/09

Late Bremen show sees off Vienna Werder Bremen scored twice in the final nine minutes to secure a hard-earned home 2-0 victory over Austria Vienna, and with it a place in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Tim Borowski finally opened the scoring in the 81st minute and Hugo Almeida capped off his first game since August with the second goal three minutes later.

Werder extended their unbeaten run to 18 games and Thomas Schaaf's side now have 10 points at the top of Group L.

Borowski had the first chance of the game after 10 minutes but Austria goalkeeper Szabolcs Safar made the save.

His opposite number Tim Wiese proved his skill seven minutes later with a fine stop from Milenko Acimovic, who had a free run on the left before trying his luck from 13 yards.

Marin Leovac appeared to have been brought down by Werder defender Clemens Fritz in the area in the 23rd minute but referee Stefan Johannesson refused to point to the spot.

Wiese again was called upon to keep Werder in the game four minutes later as Emin Sulimani got behind the home defence before seeing his shot deflect off Wiese and just over the crossbar.

The visitors were forced to replace Safar at half-time, with Robert Almer coming on.

But Wiese was the first goalkeeper called into action, superbly blocking Jacek Bak's header in the 46th minute and then gathering Aleksander Dragovic's subsequent pass back into the goalmouth.

Wiese again saved his team-mates 12 minutes later, getting down to his left to fend away Michael Liendl's shot from 13 yards.

Werder began to push forward with more determination but Aaron Hunt's shot went just wide in the 63rd minute and Almer did a fine job stopping Hugo Almeida's shot a minute later.

Borowski missed two chances before finally getting his goal with nine minutes left.

Mesut Ozil sent a high ball into the area where Markus Rosenberg headed on and Borowski headed home from 11 yards.