After the game he was more frustrated with himself than anyone else could have been. Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese was at fault in the 45th minute for Rangers first goal and so began what was to finish as a 0:2 defeat in the UEFA Cup last sixteen, first leg tie in Glasgow: “That was dreadful and it should never, ever happen! The ball swayed wickedly in the air and then slipped through my hands. I had hoped from then that the ball would hit the crossbar but suddenly it was in the back of the net. I really should have gathered that one and held onto it.” All that the keeper can do now is put the incident behind him and look ahead to the future: “It’s just as well that we are already playing again on Saturday.”
In the short time they have, Wiese’s teammates will attempt to pep up the down-trodden goalkeeper. Even with the match having just finished, there was no pointing of fingers or issuing blame, with the Werder players instead playing things down as much as possible: “Everyone could see that the goals came from two goalkeeping errors but what can we possibly say to him? We will leave him to his own devices and I’m sure he will spend enough time replaying the two incidents”, commented Sebastian Boenisch and trainer Thomas Schaaf added: “Anyone who knows football and has played themselves will know just how the player is feeling right now. We don’t need to discuss that tonight. Tim didn’t come here to play on his own – we lost here as a team.”
Werder’s general manager Klaus Allofs sought the reason for the defeat after the game in the collective and not in individual error: “On the whole I was quite disappointed by our performance. The next time we play like that going forward we won’t score any goals either! If we’d managed to score just one goal, then the whole World would seem like a better place but that didn’t happen for us.” Thankfully for the Green-Whites there is a return leg, and the opportunity for the Werder offensive to prove just what they are capable of.