Fired up and determined to make an impression in this season’s Champions League, the Werder Bremen players climbed aboard one of the two planes stationed in Bremen on Monday morning...
Fired up and determined to make an impression in this season’s Champions League, the Werder Bremen players climbed aboard one of the two planes stationed in Bremen on Monday morning...
Fired up and determined to make an impression in this season’s Champions League, the Werder Bremen players climbed aboard one of the two planes stationed in Bremen on Monday morning, ready to take-off with club representatives and numerous members of the press, with Rome as their destination. General manager Klaus Allofs was very clear that all were very aware as to the importance as this particular business trip: “We made a poor start in this competition and have some making up to do.” The players themselves have got the message too. Diego confirmed at the airport: “This is a decisive game considering how we were beaten at home by Piräus.”
Per Mertesacker knows the importance of the task in hand too: “If we want to have any chance in the Champions League we will have to leave Lazio Rome trailing behind us. We took our initial step in the first game and now we need to follow it up. If we can pick up there where we recently left off in the Bundesliga, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
Naldo, Pasanen & Co. will have to be prepared for a hell of a challenge at the Olympia Stadium. Last season’s third placed side in the Serie A are not meeting expectations this time around and are currently back in 14th place in the table and have suffered four defeats on the trot. The Green-Whites are not about to be blinded by their opponents recent results though: “Not to expect some severe resistance from a team playing at home in the Champions League would mean something is very wrong”, warned Klaus Allofs.
Head coach Thomas Schaaf knows: “Especially as they haven’t been getting the results they’ve wanted in the league, they will want to make up for that in the Champions League to raise the spirits. They will be very happy to have an important player like Ledesma back in the team. He’s the one who pulls the strings and gets things moving forward. They are solid at the back anyway.” The coach doesn’t expect Lazio to rely on their defensive abilities though:”They know that they’re not in a position to play extravagant football at the moment, that wouldn’t be very clever. We got to see in the game a fortnight ago that we need to be present in the game for the full ninety minutes though if we are to prevent them from getting a grasp on the game as they did towards the end in Bremen.”
Despite the loss of Boubacar Sanogo (bruised foot) and Torsten Frings (knee ligament injury), Thomas Schaaf is confident about his team’s chances: “We’ve been dealing with absentees like this since the very beginning of this season. The team don’t worry about such things anymore and that’s how we manage to constantly perform the way we do.”
Thomas Schaaf will have his scorer from the weekend, Hugo Almeida, in whom he has a great deal of faith: “He’s developed very well. Last season he showed a few signs of what he can do, but just a few. Now that he has won some stability, he can perform consistently as all top players do.”
Carlos Alberto has similar high expectations of himself. The Brazilian joined the Green-Whites for his first away outing in the Champions League. In his own opinion, he has put the bulk of his health problems behind him: “I’m really happy to be back. I may not be fit enough for a full 90 minutes but I could surely help out for a brief period.” The midfielder is hoping for a change in that situation very quickly: “I’m trying to find my rhythm now in training so as to battle for a long-term place in the team.”
Johnnie Muldoon
