Niclas Füllkrug celebrates an emotional return to the Weserstadion in Bremen

Goal scored, emotional cheers in front of the fan curve and a celebrated tackle: Niclas Füllkrug's return to the Bremen Weserstadion could hardly have gone better. “It feels unreal at times,” explained the 33-year-old striker after the deserved 3-1 win against Champions League club RB Leipzig. “After the goal I felt that it was much more emotional than anywhere else.”

For Bremen's coach Daniel Thioune, however, it wasn't just the Füllkrug goal that made the deciding score 2-0 (68th minute) in the surprising coup against Leipzig. The attacker documented Werder's path with a tough duel immediately after the start of the game. “Niclas Füllkrug made a statement in his first tackle, which helped everyone realize what we were planning to do today,” emphasized the Bremen coach.

Werder and Füllkrug fit together

Füllkrug and Werder - it also fits on his second return. At 19, he made his debut in the Bundesliga as a young Werder player. In 2019, when he returned to Bremen for the first time, he made his breakthrough as a national striker. Now, after two extremely mixed years at West Ham United and AC Milan, he quickly showed his familiar snapshot face again in his Werder comeback. “We added a lot of force,” said captain Marco Friedl.

He headed the ball into the Leipzig net from twelve meters after a Werder corner. “I don’t know if every player does it from there,” explained Füllkrug. “I hit him well.” This was followed by emotional cheers in front of the Bremen fan curve. “As if it was mandatory,” explained the veteran, who still fell short of expectations in the 1:4 loss at the start of the league in Freiburg.

Quick return to Dortmund

The only small drawback on a special day for Werder and Füllkrug: In the DFB Cup they go to Borussia Dortmund, Füllkrug's former club, in the second round. "I'm obviously happy to be playing in Dortmund again. But we would have liked to have been able to push it back a few rounds," he said with a smile.