He was involved with the German national side at both the World Cup and European Championships. He stood strong for the Green-Whites against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid...
He was involved with the German national side at both the World Cup and European Championships. He stood strong for the Green-Whites against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid...
He was involved with the German national side at both the World Cup and European Championships. He stood strong for the Green-Whites against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea. But Per Mertesacker was never before faced with a team that possess the attacking power of Inter Milan: “That was the strongest attack that I have ever played against. The guys were all massive, physically well trained, good footballers and mobile at the same time. It really gets you thinking, your normal north German isn’t quite built that way.”
Mertesacker was slightly swollen with pride by the end of the game though. Considering they were dealing with world renowned superstars such as Adriano, Ibrahimovic and Balotelli, the performance of the Werder defence can be even more highly regarded: “We really had to put in overtime to cope with that. We had to be on our guard for the full 90 minutes and really battle our way into the game.”
Two players who played an important role in the performance of the defence were the two new wide men, Sebastian Prödl and Petri Pasanen: “They were very disciplined and fulfilled their task really well. They selected the perfect situations to push forward, for example when Sebastian broke down the wing before the break to supply the cross from which Pizarro hit the post,” said Klaus Allofs, who wasn’t at all disappointed that the duo didn’t constantly look to push forward. “When you are 0-1 down, you can’t afford to take things too easy. You’ve got to be careful to find the right dosage. Then anything is possible. If they’d score a second, we could have packed our bags.”
The fact that the Peruvian striker could only find the upright with his effort wasn’t something that bothered Prödl for long, after all, it wasn’t an easy ball to connect with: “I wanted to play the pass directly and saw that Claudio had made his move, but he was under quite a bit of pressure. It’s a pity that it didn’t work out though, it would have been my first assist in the Champions League,” grinned Prödl after the match. There’s always the next time....
