With the impressive 5:1 win over FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen forced their way back into the race for one of the all important Champions League qualifying places.
With the impressive 5:1 win over FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen forced their way back into the race for one of the all important Champions League qualifying places.
With the impressive 5:1 win over FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen forced their way back into the race for one of the all important Champions League qualifying places. It was the first win over Schalke for the Green-Whites since August 6th 2004. The win over the guests from Gelsenkirchen saw Thomas Schaaf’s side leap-frog the ‘Royal-Blues’, a direct competitor, into second place in the Bundesliga table and a step closer to the ultimate target.
“We are headed in the right direction now. We intend to continue down that road and return to our old strength”, explained trainer Schaaf with a view to the clubs plans for the coming weeks. The coach saw a determined, passionate and goal-oriented performance from his team. The journalists in the press room were to be heard talking about the ‘Werder of old’ after the match.
Trainer Thomas Schaaf was quite satisfied with what he saw but put the breaks on the euphoria: “The fact that not everything in the garden is rosy was quite clear in the first half. That was pretty disjointed and turbulent”, remarked the trainer. Werder now have their fate in their own hands: “You could see how we can play when our confidence is up”, explained Torsten Frings and team captain Frank Baumann added: “We are in a very good position now and it suits us to defend second place. We don’t want to give that up now.”
Werder Bremen could pick up another three points in their bid to hold on to second spot this coming Tuesday against FC Hansa Rostock: “We hope to be able to ratify the upwards trend and put on a similar performance in Rostock in order to stay on course for the Champions League qualifying spot”, said Tim Borowski on the challenges that lie ahead for the Green-Whites.
