Fullkrug Scores Twice as Bremen Beat Mainz

Niclas Füllkrug scored for the sixth straight Bundesliga match as Werder Bremen won 3-2 at Mainz on Saturday, October 24. The striker converted two penalties inside the opening 25 minutes, giving him a second consecutive brace in the league.

Füllkrug returned to Bremen on loan from West Ham in the summer, and he has quickly looked at home again. He now has eight goals this season, which is half of the 16 he scored in his final campaign at the club in 2022/23, when he won the Bundesliga's top-scorer award. His form is a big change from recent years. He scored only three goals in an injury-hit 18 months at West Ham and just one during a six-month loan at AC Milan.

Ludovit Reis added Bremen's other goal. Mainz pulled two goals back through Anthony Caci and Lee Jae-sung, but Bremen held on for the win. It lifted them to 12 points, level with RB Leipzig. Bremen's coach praised his striker after the match, calling him the team's guiding star who is carrying the side right now.

Elsewhere, RB Leipzig bounced back from a 4-1 defeat at Real Madrid in midweek with a comfortable 4-0 home win over promoted Elversberg. Rômulo scored twice, while Tidiam Gomis, who got Leipzig's only goal at the Bernabéu, and Christoph Baumgartner also scored. Leipzig climbed to fifth. They have still not earned a point away from home this season, but they have won their four home games by a combined score of 18-0.

The other results on the day went as follows. Paderborn's Rayan Philippe scored in the 88th minute to beat his parent club Hamburg 1-0, only the promoted side's second win of the season. Augsburg and Union Berlin drew 1-1, with both finishing with 10 men, and Cologne and Schalke played out a goalless draw.

Both sides play on Saturday, October 31. Bremen host Hoffenheim, while Leipzig travel to Schalke. For Füllkrug, a seventh straight scoring game would stretch his run further.