A vast number of Werder Bremen’s player have attained the honour of representing their country at international level and yesterday evening there were quite a few on duty during a round of international friendlies. Some got to enjoy the evening with celebrations at the end of their nights work whilst others had somewhat less to be cheerful about.
One of the more satisfied from that particular group would have been playmaker Diego, who was involved for 78 minutes, and displayed an impressive performance, as Brazil beat Ireland 1:0 in Dublin. It was the number 10’s pass that led to Robinho’s winning goal in the 66th minute. Naldo was also part of the Brazilian squad but the Werder centre-half watched the game from the bench.
A further Bremen midfielder, Daniel Jensen, had reason to celebrate too as Denmark beat Slovenia 2:1.
Two other Green-White representatives were involved in draws on Wednesday evening. Markus Rosenberg was given the opportunity to spear-head the Swedish attack but the Scandinavians could only manage a drab 0:0 with Turkey in Istanbul. Dusko Tosic, on the other hand, got to see a couple of goals as he, and his Serbian colleagues, drew 1:1 with Macedonia.
Hugo Almeida and Jurica Vranjes were also on international duty on Wednesday but had little to celebrate. Almeida was introduced in the 57th minute of Portugal’s clash with World champions Italy, but the Werder front man could do nothing to prevent his side slipping to a 1:3 defeat. Vranjes was left to watch his Croatian team mates suffer a 3:0 drubbing at the hands of Holland from the bench.
The evening had a more positive ending for a further up and coming Bremen hopeful, Alparslan Erdem. The youngster played out the full 90 minutes as Turkey’s U21 side beat their Slovakian counterparts 3:2.