“It was good for my personal story”

Pieper showed he would prefer to talk about the defeat rather than how he is doing physically, showing that sporting performance is at the forefront of the centre-back’s mind, and not his fitness status. “Although we can’t just completely forget about the game, we can move on,” the Lüdinghauser native looked back at Saturday’s loss. “The coach rightly said that we should take a moment to recollect what we achieved as a team in the weeks before. I look forward to games like these, because I know what kind of performance we can put in.” 

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“I never would have dreamt of playing so many games”

Grüll back in partial team training

Euro play-offs and Nations League clashes

With captain Marco Friedl (suspended) and Milos Veljkovic (foot) currently sidelined, Pieper will need to quickly get back to the highest Bundesliga standard possible after his long break through injury. The centre-back is not thinking too hard about the competition for a place in Werder’s back three with Julian Malatini. “You’ll have to judge that – I’m simply pleased to have been trusted,” added Pieper, who is optimistic ahead of the away match against Hoffenheim: “We’ll try and put in a top performance and to get the three points.”