Sargent off the mark but Bremen held by Frankfurt

Frankfurt 1-1 Bremen
Goals: 0-1 Sargent (51'), 1-1 Silva (65')

Frankfurt dominated possession early on, and came close to opening the scoring when Daichi Kamada found Bas Dost in the Bremen box, but the big Dutchman headed off target. The visitors always looked capable of hitting die Adler on the break, though, with Sargent leading the charge at the other end in the injury-enforced absence of Niklas Füllkrug. The host thought they had opened the scoring towards the end of the half, however, when Kamada reacted quickest to Silva's parried shot, but the goal was ruled out with the Portuguese having been ruled offside in the build-up. Silva had another chance a few minutes later, but Jiri Pavlenka saved once again and half-time rolled around with the deadlock intact.

The second half was barely five minutes old when that changed, however. Christian Groß slipped a through-ball to Sargent and the young American did well to stay onside before sending Pavlenka the wrong way for his first goal of the campaign. Leonardo Bittencourt could have put Bremen further clear soon after when he burst through for a similar chance, but this time Makoto Hasebe raced back to clear the danger. Frankfurt soon punished that profligacy, with Silva finishing off his fourth goal of the Bundesliga season from close range after Kamada had squared for him. Dost came close minutes later but fired off target with the goal at his mercy and the game petered out with both sides settling for a point.

• Sargent scored his first Bundesliga goal for Bremen since June's 6-1 destruction of Cologne. He is the first non-German to score for Werder this season.
• Silva pulled onto four goals for the season. He has scored 12 since the return to action - only Robert Lewandowski (19) has managed more.
• This was a strange day for Dost. He previously enjoyed five goals and three assists in four matches against Bremen.
• This fixture had previously averaged 3.05 goals per game in the 100 Bundesliga meetings before Saturday's, with 24 being scored in the last six matches alone.
• Sebastian Rode has still never lost against Werder, winning five and drawing five to date.

Watch: Josh Sargent reflects on his first Bundesliga goal of 2020/21

Frankfurt: Trapp - Abraham (c), Hasebe, Hinteregger - Toure (Younes 60'), Rode, Ilsanker (Kohr 45+3'), Zuber (Barkok 60') - Kamada - Dost, Silva
Unused subs: Schubert, N'Dicka, Hrustic, Sow, Chandler, da Costa
Out: Ache (thigh), Kostic (knee), Tuta (thigh)
Coach: Adi Hütter

Bremen: Pavlenka - Veljkovic, Moisander (c), Friedl - Gebre Selassie, Eggestein, Groß (Möhwald 83'), Mbom (Toprak 70') - Chong (Rashica 62'), Bittencourt (Osako 70') - Sargent
Unused subs: Kapino, Schmid, Gruev, Rieckmann, Woltemade
Out: Agu (not included), Augustinsson (thigh), Erras (thigh), Füllkrug (calf), Selke (groin)
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt