The hero of the night was the first to set his sights on the task ahead: "Of course we can enjoy this evening for a little while but by tomorrow our concentration needs to be completely set on the Nuremberg game", admitted penalty hero Tim Wiese just after the UEFA Cup success against Braga. The weeks are pretty packed in the Werder Bremen schedule, which means shifting the focus quickly is of the utmost importance.
And the goalkeeper is absolutely right. On Saturday,16.02.2008, the second placed side in the Bundesliga table have their next difficult opponent to face when 1. FC Nuremberg come a calling following their honourable 0:1 defeat in the UEFA Cup on Thursday night away to Benfica in Lisbon. There will be a similar fate for the Werder players next week when they travel directly from Braga to Frankfurt.
Nuremberg will take on Werder in Bremen with sacked trainer Hans Meyer’s replacement, Thomas von Hessen, in charge of FCN in the Bundesliga for the first time. The new coach will certainly have his work cut out for him with the job of replacing vital players such as Zvjezdan Misimovic, Angelos Charisteas, Marek Mintal, Robert Vittek (who are all out through injury) and captain Tomas Galasek (suspension) for the clash with the Green-Whites.
In spite of that, the new trainer is remaining optimistic: "We performed well in Lisbon and we can build on that. I have a good feeling about the trip to Bremen", said a confident Thomas von Heesen.