At the very latest, as Markus Rosenberg slotted the ball home for Werder’s ‘Golden-Goal’ on Saturday, the BayArena in Leverkusen was securely in Green-White hands. The Werder supporters, who had taken over a good quarter of the stadium, erupted in joyous celebration. Down at pitch level, the Werder players instigated the party mood and even the lap of honour made by Leverkusen veteran Carsten Ramelow was drowned in the Green-White sea of celebration.
“There is a massive amount of strain that has been lifted from us now,” admitted full-back Clemens Fritz. Tim Borowski commented: “That was a real goose-bump feeling because it was a genuine ‘Final’ atmosphere in a game of great importance to both teams, and one that we were able to decide in our favour.”
Striker Markus Rosenberg stated: “You could really feel the pressure on the pitch. We knew that Schalke were winning 2:0 and that a goal for Leverkusen would mean third place for us. No-one wanted to have to go through Champions League qualifying, we could all remember that jittery game against Zagreb.”
With that in mind, it was no wonder that the Swede’s 14 goal of the season was to ignite such revelry. “You could certainly say, that was a million dollar goal,” commented the happy front man who finishes the season as the Green-Whites top striker as he heads confidently towards the Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland.