Pizarro's hard work pays off

Claudio Pizarro with a smile on his face after his first goal of the season and an away victory in Augsburg (photo: nph).
First Team
Monday, 09.11.2015 / 13:14

For a moment, Claudio Pizarro was shocked. "That's bad news," said the Peruvian. But then the striker's smile returned, after all; he had just ...

For a moment, Claudio Pizarro was shocked. "That's bad news," said the Peruvian. But then the striker's smile returned, after all; he had just bagged his 177th Bundesliga goal and opened the scoring for SV Werder. What had briefly shocked the 37-year-old in the 2-1 away win will become clear further down.

For the time being, the hero of the day was allowed to celebrate his goal in peace and tell the journalists in the Augsburg mixed zone what it meant to him. "That was an unbelievably important goal for me to score. In recent weeks I've had several fitness problems, but I've worked hard on them. The goal today was my reward," said Pizarro, gleaming with joy. 

A difficult few weeks

Pizarro celebrates his first goal of the season with his equally ecstatic teammates. (Photo: nph)

Pizarro was ecstatic about his return to the Weser in August and arrived with high expectations. The highest scoring foreign-born player in Bundesliga history kick started his 'third coming' promisingly with a crucial assist in the win at Hoffenheim. But in the following games, the striker failed to find that all important first goal since his return. "Those were a difficult few weeks for me," admitted the Werder legend.

The way he put away the cross from Santiago Garcia in the 58th minute with such ease, reminded everyone of the old Pizarro. The finish was, however, not as easy as Pizarro made it look. Even the experienced finisher himself had to take a deep breath once the ball was in the back of the net: "The goal was far, far more difficult to score than usual, simply because I had no confidence at all." The only certainty about the situation for the goalscorer was his trust in the man out wide delivering the cross. "Thanks to training, I'm in the habit of just bombing forward whenever Santi's on the ball. The cross was perfect. We've worked on it a lot in training, now it's finally come together in a game. I'm chuffed."

From Augsburg to Peru

No time to revel for Pizarro, however: Tomorrow morning he'll be hopping on a flight from Munich to Peru for an international fixture, which would explain his moment of shock after the full-time whistle. As we know, Lufthansa will go on strike for a month come the start of the week, and for a moment, the usually so calm and collected South American saw himself stranded in Munich. "I'm flying with a different airline," he reminded himself just moments later. His smile returned and concluded an all round pleasant Sunday afternoon.

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