Rashica brace gets Bremen party started

Werder Bremen 4-0 Augsburg
Goals: 1-0 Rashica (5’), 2-0 J. Eggestein (27’), 3-0 Rashica (28’), 4-0 Möhwald (83')

The home side, wearing a one-off kit for the occasion, were already in jubilant mood after their penalty shootout win over Borussia Dortmund during the week and quickly got the party going at the Weser-Stadion when Rashica gave Konstantinos Stafylidis the slip and tucked home the first shot of the game after Max Kruse and Davy Klaassen had split the Augsburg defence open for the Kosovo international. Werder then sat back and it was the visitors who saw more of the ball, including a header over the bar from Reece Oxford on his first Bundesliga start for the club. The Bremen party really got into full swing when Johannes Eggestein and Rashica netted two more in as many minutes. The former drilled home a loose ball inside the box before the latter bagged his first Bundesliga brace when he dodged an Oxford slide, cut inside onto his right foot and curled a stunning effort past Gregor Kobel into the far corner. There would be no hat-trick for the forward, though, as he was substituted to a standing ovation after 36 minutes due to a back problem.

Bremen were close to adding a fourth not long after the break following a counter, but captain Kruse had to adjust with the ball behind him and blasted over the bar. There was further bad news for Augsburg when top scorer Alfred Finnbogason limped off on 68 minutes, just moments before Dong-won Ji dragged an effort wide from the edge of the box. The northern city was on its feet again late on, not to celebrate a goal but their adopted son Claudio Pizarro. The Peruvian came on for his 16th appearance of the season, looking to extend his now one-goal lead over Robert Lewandowski as the Bundesliga’s all-time foreign goalscorer and become the oldest scorer in the league’s history, but it was in fact another substitute, Kevin Möhwald, who added the fourth to round off a comfortable victory and the joint-biggest under Florian Kohfeldt.

Watch: Milot Rashica says he's on the right path

Match stats 

• Rashica’s first goal was Bremen’s earliest of the season in the Bundesliga after five minutes. He’d also netted after five in Tuesday’s DFB Cup triumph in Dortmund.
• Eggestein has scored in back-to-back matches for the first time in his senior career.
• Werder remain the only team this season to score in every league match.
• Bremen kept just their second clean sheet at home in 2018/19 after a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg on Matchday 7.
• Werder have scored nine goals through substitutes this season, only Dortmund have more.
• Augsburg had previously conceded just twice in the opening 30 minutes of games, but were beaten three times inside half an hour here.

Bremen: Pavlenka – Gebre Selassie, Langkamp, Moisander, Augustinsson – M. Eggestein, Bargfrede, Klaassen – J. Eggestein (Pizarro 77'), Kruse (c) (Sargent 88'), Rashica (Möhwald 36’)
Unused subs: Kapino, Veljkovic, Sahin, Friedl
Out: Harnik (muscle), Johannsson (ankle)
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt

Augsburg: Kobel – Schmid, Khedira, Oxford, Stafylidis – Ji, Moravek, Baier (c) (Stanic 88'), Max (Jensen 53’) – Gregoritsch – Finnbogason (Hahn 68’)
Unused subs: Giefer, Callsen-Bracker, Cordova, Richter
Out: Framberger (knee), Gouweleeuw (groin), Koo (match fitness), Luthe (knee)
Coach: Manuel Baum