HSV Vs Werder Bremen [3–2] – Bundesliga 2025/2026: Why Intensity Decided The Nordderby – Tactical Analysis

There are a lot of derbies in the Bundesliga, but there are two that stand out among the rest.

The first one is the Revierderby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04, but with Schalke in the second division for now, the derby won’t take place this season.

The Nordderby between Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV shared the same fate for a long time.

While it was the most-played game in the Bundesliga for a long time, HSV were relegated in 2018, and therefore, the game was not played in the Bundesliga for seven years.

There were two Nordderbies in the second division during the 2021/2022 season; the game on Sunday was the first Nordderby in the Bundesliga since 2018.

For HSV and Merlin Polzin, the game was the highlight of the week.

Despite playing in the DFB-Pokal during the week, the entire club was very focused on the game.

For Werder Bremen coach Horst Steffen, the game was important, but the club took a calmer approach, treating it like every other game.

With the fans being on fire, a lot of pyrotechnics, two cities on the edge because of the game, the atmosphere was astounding.

In the end, the game held everything people were hoping for.

The first half was more tame; both teams were focused on not conceding and on defending, so there weren’t many big opportunities for either team.

The game got way faster in the second half, with four goals in 20 minutes, and, in the end, HSV emerged as the victor at Volksparkstadion, crowning themselves king of the north.

In this tactical analysis and post-match analysis, we will look at how Werder and HSV approached the game, how the game developed, and why HSV were victorious in the end.

Hamburger SV Vs Werder Bremen Formations & Lineups

Merlin Polzin has experimented a lot throughout the season, and he did the same in the Nordderby.

Daniel Heuer-Fernandes started in goal, with Nicolas Capaldo, Luka Vuskovic and Jordan Torunarigha playing as the back-three in front of him.

Bakery Jatta and Aboubaka Soumahoro started as the full-backs for Polzin.

It was Jatta’s first Bundesliga game this season, and he made the squad and started.

In central midfield, Albert-Sambi Lokonga and Nicolai Remberg played as the double-pivot.

In the attack, Fabio Vieira played on the right, Jean-Luc Dompé on the left, and Rayan Philippe as the lone striker, making it a 3-4-3 formation on paper.

For Horst Steffen, he changed next to nothing compared to the last couple of weeks.

In the usual 4-2-3-1 formation, Mio Backhaus got the start in goal, with Marco Friedl as the left-back, Karim Coulibaly and Amos Pieper in central defence, and Yukinari Sugawara as right-back.

Jens Stage and Senne Lynen played as the double-pivot, as always, with Romano Schmid playing as the attacking midfielder.

Marco Grüll played as the left-winger, Cameron Puertas played on the right, and, once again, Keke Topp got the start as striker over Victor Boniface.

Werder & HSV Prepared For Each Other

The first half of the game started rather slowly; both teams worked to establish ball security and focus on their work against the ball.

Polzin and Steffen both wanted their teams to maintain composure and not lose their heads early in the game, and it showed on the pitch.

Derbies are more than just tactics, and Polzin definitely managed to get his team to show a very good amount of intensity without overpacing.

Werder, on the other hand, were never able to match that over the 90 minutes and therefore struggled in the duels.

Werder have a clear identity this season, but it really struggles to execute it for multiple reasons.

The main reason, in my opinion, is the lack of individual class from their attackers.

Werder kept their double-pivot in a very narrow shape when building up.

They often offset their two players in the later stages of attack, but while building up, they kept both of them close to the backline and in the central areas.

This creates a 2-2 shape in the build-up.

While Steffen prefers to build through his centre-backs, in this game they were heavily involved in Lynen and Stage on the ball because Polzin did not have his attackers press high up the field.

Stage and Lynen tried to find vertical and diagonal passes into the half-space, both wingers pushed inwards, and the full-backs pushed high up the field, so the option for line-breaking passes was regularly available.

HSV were prepared for that and quickly took away those passing options.

Jatta was dropping back into the backline on the right side at all times, covering off the width provided by the full-back, which allowed Polzin to defend aggressively with his centre-backs.

Here, Capaldo instantly presses forward onto Grüll in the half-space, and the Werder attackers simply lack the quality on the ball to create out of these situations.

The same thing happened on the other side.

Puertas tried to move into the half-space and received the ball from Lynen, but Torunarigha was ready and pressed forward, getting to the attacking midfielder before he had a chance to control the ball.

Werder got into the half-space, but always lost the ball to the two centre-backs pressing forward.

While the positional play enables them to reach the areas they want, the players lack quality there, and the other attacking players and the two full-backs rarely offer good solutions off the ball to help their teammate on the ball, resulting in poor attacking play.

Steffen’s team did not create an opportunity until stoppage time in the first half.

Against the ball, Werder were better, but their attacking press lacked punch.

This forced them to drop back into a deep block often, and especially in the final 20 minutes of the half, Werder found themselves close to their own goal for the majority of the time.

When defending, Friedl pushed inwards, and Grüll dropped into the backline, creating a 5-4-1 shape against the ball.

This worked out in the sense that HSV were only able to create one actual opportunity, but Werder struggled with getting a grip on the ball too often.

HSV Taking Risks

Unlike HSV, Steffen wanted his men to play an attacking press, but Werder struggled to maintain consistent pressure on the ball.

Polzin had a very good solution prepared for his team, and they managed to find a way to progress the ball like they always do.

The players lacked quality on the ball, and it showed.

In the early stages of the game, the defenders were forced into long balls often, but they settled into the game about 20 minutes in.

Werder approached the game with a very man-oriented press in the first line.

Topp and Puertas were assigned to cover and press the two centre-backs; Schmid covered the right-back; Grüll dropped back to cover Jatta; and the midfielders matched up straight against each other.

In theory, this sounded great, but with HSV building through a back-four rather than a back-three, this caused the distances Werder had to cover to become rather big.

Another huge problem was that HSV were heavily involving their goalkeeper in the passing game, creating a plus-one situation for them in the first line.

Werder often tried to press him in a very horizontal way, to cut off one side of the field, but Polzin’s men found easy solutions through the triangle pretty much at all times.

One central midfielder pushed up the field when the first pass was played; the other dropped back to receive the ball from Heuer-Fernandes, then played the lay-off into the space of the open centre-back.

HSV got out of the pressure like that every single time late in the first half.

But they also struggled on the ball, because too often, they lacked passing options for the centre-backs after receiving the ball.

In this situation, they took too long to get out of the pressure through the triangle, allowing Werder to recover their position.

Vuskovic played the pass towards the sideline, where Capaldo was under immediate pressure now.

The Argentinian tried to dribble past Schmid, but lost the ball in this situation.

Schmid, by far the best attacking player for Steffen on Sunday, played a vertical pass to Jens Stage quickly.

The Danish midfielder now found himself in acres of space, dribbled towards the box and then finished off the first opportunity for Werder to give his team the lead just before half-time.

After scoring 10 goals last season, Stage has already scored five goals in 11 games this season, which is very impressive for a midfielder.

The 29-year-old Dane is the key player for Werder in their struggling attack.

HSV Key Substitution

The second half started in pretty much the same way the first half ended.

HSV were a bit better and had greater intensity, but were unable to actually create anything with the ball.

Werder dropped back into a block and tried to defend, heavily struggling with the ball and not creating any good opportunities.

Then, Polzin decided to sub on Miro Muheim.

Muheim is a much more attacking option at left-back than all other players in the HSV squad, and he instantly showed why.

HSV had a dominant pattern of play to create opportunities, but Soumahoro struggled offensively, and it rarely worked out for them.

Then, Muheim took over.

Dompé was in a very wide position, and Werder always tried to double him, simply because the Frenchman is by far the best player at creating chances for HSV.

Dompé received the ball from his left-back, waited until he got doubled, and Muheim already started an underlapping run, allowing Dompé to thread a through ball in his path.

From then on, Muheim was able to use his quality to cross the ball into the box, where Lokonga scored a goal amid huge chaos in Werder’s backline.

From there on, the game got chaotic.

Vuskovic backheeled a free kick into the net to give HSV the lead, but Werder equalised just two minutes later with super-sub Justin Njinmah finishing a cross from Schmid.

Then, Muheim happened again.

Once again, the Swiss left-back started dribbling forward, and the entire Werder defence anticipated the ball towards Dompé.

Instead, Muheim cut inside.

Sugawara was now late in the duel and looked really bad in this situation, allowing Muheim to continue his run towards the box.

Pieper now switched to covering Dompé on the wing, and the chaos for Werder was complete once again.

Muheim continued his run. Sugawara was completely out of the situation because of his horrible tackling attempt. 

Pieper was unable to close the distance to Muheim in time, so Coulibaly was scanning the ball.

The young centre-back now decided to press Muheim, a bad decision; Pieper was still in a decent-enough position to defend the path into the box.

The body position and timing of the 18-year-old were bad as well, allowing Muheim to square the ball.

Coulibaly took a step towards Muheim, Yussuf Poulsen anticipated that, got open in his back, and Marco Friedl now had to cover three attackers.

In the end, Poulsen scored the winning goal with his left foot, giving HSV the deserved win in the derby over Werder Bremen.

Conclusion

In the end, the HSV win was deserved.

Yes, Polzin’s men struggled on the ball for most of the game, but they always had better motor, greater intensity, and just looked sharper than their opponent.

The only reason Werder took the lead in the first place was a mistake by Capaldo; otherwise, HSV’s defense was very good on Sunday and laid the groundwork for their success.

Horst Steffen managed to lay the basic structure of his intended tactical framework out for Werder, but in the details, Werder are not good enough.

They often get into the positions they want, but have no idea how to build on, resulting in horrible attacking outings.

They score goals simply because Romano Schmid and Jens Stage are very efficient in punishing mistakes, but the rest of their attacking players really struggle in Steffen’s system.

Even worse, Werder were never able to match the intensity and willpower of Polzin’s team, something you need to do in a derby.

For Werder, after a decent start to the season, they now have to start to look backwards and avoid getting dragged into the relegation battle.

For HSV, their second consecutive win puts them in the midfield of the Bundesliga table for now.