Werder Bremen v Everton Preview

The 13th of August is fast approaching and the level of pre-season opposition is about to be cranked up a few notches, with Everton going from Birmingham to Bremen in the space of 3 days.

The trip to North West Germany represents our penultimate pre-season friendly, with another tough test against Villarreal to come before the Premier League opener at White Hart Lane. Bremen will provide our toughest test of pre-season to date, meaning that a marked improvement on Saturday's performance at Birmingham is in order.

Goals from Leighton Baines and fit-again-but-probably-not-for-long Louis Saha secured victory at St. Andrews' and the squad have now flown out to Germany to take on Werder Bremen. 4-time German Champions, Bremen are stalwarts of the German top division but suffered a frustrating campaign in 2010/11 which ended in an unusually low 13th place finish.

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Bremen are stalwarts of the German top division, but suffered a frustrating 2010/11 campaign which ended in an unusually low 13th placed finish.

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Nicknamed Die Werderaner (the River Islanders), Bremen play their home games at the 42,500 capacity Weserstadion. Managed by Thomas Schaaf, who spent his entire playing career with Bremen, their current squad includes a number of recognizable names.

One such player is veteran German defender and club captain Per Mertesacker, who has played at two World Cups and has 75 international caps to his name. Werder's ranks also include skilful midfielder Marko Marin, Brazilian defender Naldo and ex-Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre.

Another name known to English fans is that of Claudio Pizarro, whose 141 Bundesliga goals make him the highest scoring foreigner in German football history. Pizarro had a somewhat less successful spell with Chelsea from 2007-2009.

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Bremen's ranks include skilful midfielder Marko Marin, Brazilian defender Naldo and ex-Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre

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I predict a very hard-fought game in Germany and I'm sure that Bremen will be a huge step up in class from any of the sides we've played so far. I think we will be in for a tough game but I reckon we will come out of it with a draw, which would be a decent result.

StickyToffee Prediction: Werder Bremen 2-2 Everton

And, of course, if we get hammered we can always say that it was a 'good workout'.