With their win against Hansa Rostock, Werder Bremen have settled themselves comfortably amongst the top three in the Bundesliga and can now focus confidently on their up-coming tasks.
With their win against Hansa Rostock, Werder Bremen have settled themselves comfortably amongst the top three in the Bundesliga and can now focus confidently on their up-coming tasks.
With their win against Hansa Rostock, Werder Bremen have settled themselves comfortably amongst the top three in the Bundesliga and can now focus confidently on their up-coming tasks. Instead of celebrating their recent successes, Thomas Schaaf’s men are getting on with the job in hand and setting their sights on Lazio Rome and Karlsruhe SC.
The Green-Whites will have a tough nut to crack when they travel to Rome to face Lazio: “It will be a real cauldron there and we’ll have to prepare ourselves for that. Lazio work well as a team but have a number of good individuals. They may not be as well known as the players from other clubs but they are dangerous all the same”, prophesised Klaus Allofs, who has a lot of respect for their 43 year old goalkeeper Ballota too: “I don’t know why people smirk when they talk about him. There have been a number of good examples of players who can still be good at that age so long as you stay fit and keep at it. Mirko Votava played for Werder for a very long time and that is possible as a keeper. Andreas Reinke performed consistently for us at 38. I know that wouldn’t be possible anymore at 50”, remarked the general manager, who is still convinced his side can complete a successful Champions League mission. “We can qualify for the next round of the competition with our current squad, I’m convinced of that. To do so we need to get something in Rome. A win would be very good for our position but I think we could live with a draw. We can then go on and seal things up against Real before taking on Piräus, who are a direct opponent.” The former German international striker was clear as to the importance of Tuesday’s game: “In the Champions League we have nothing but finals, in Rome we have the first one.”
Allofs would have very much liked to have had Boubacar Sanogo in the team for the tie in Rome but trainer Thomas Schaaf explained the strikers fate on Sunday: “Boubacar is not an option.” The Ivory Coast international, who picked up a bruised foot against Duisburg in the cup, will be out for two to three weeks. A situation which Allofs feared: “I saw him on crutches today and knew that we’d need a minor miracle if he was to be fit for Tuesday.” Sanogo himself made his feelings clear: “I’m in pain, pain, pain.”
Tim Borowski believes the team are heading off to Rome with the right attitude: “We have the right amount of self-confidence. We haven’t now in seven Bundesliga games but we know that buys us nothing on Tuesday. We will have to approach the game just as we did the home game against Lazio.” Captain Frank Baumann agrees with his team mate: “We will have to be fully concentrated, Lazio will be willing to take risks. They are under pressure, they haven’t won a game and are now in front of their own fans again.”
Werder themselves are hoping to put on a strong performance in front of their own fans this coming Saturday in the battle to win further points in the championship. Despite their good form, there is no euphoria at the Weser Stadium: “The situation still hasn’t changed. We may still be a couple of points off the leaders but we never said we were out of the race.”
Klaus Allofs is not altogether surprised by the situation: “We were never one of those who believed that it is only a matter of time until the title goes to Munich. We are sticking to our plan of not focusing on the others. We now have to see to it that we do our homework against Karlsruhe. Those who believed the points could be easily calculated only have to look at Schalke and Bayern last weekend. They had expected a lot more than they got.”
