A bright green point danced around his face for several minutes. Again and again, Christian Vander attempted to ignore the irritating laser beam which frequently dazzled him - it was a ploy the opposition supporters...
A bright green point danced around his face for several minutes. Again and again, Christian Vander attempted to ignore the irritating laser beam which frequently dazzled him - it was a ploy the opposition supporters...
A bright green point danced around his face for several minutes. Again and again, Christian Vander attempted to ignore the irritating laser beam which frequently dazzled him - it was a ploy the opposition supporters used in particular as their side went on the attack. Eventually referee Mike Riley had seen enough and he interrupted the game to address the matter. The referee was then minutes later forced to stop the tie again as the laser attacks persisted. The referee called the captains together and then beckoned the stadium announcer to twice warn the crowd that the game would be abandoned should the nonsense not cease before there was an end to the laser terror.
Christian Vander himself calmly acknowledged the circumstances: “Quite honestly that didn’t really surprise me. I had been warned about those kind of laser attacks by an acquaintance from Greece before the tie. It would appear to be the latest craze here. I’ve never experienced anything like that on the pitch before. I didn’t want to continually complain about the situation because I was aware that it could turn the whole stadium against us and put the whole team under unnecessary pressure.”
The Werder goalkeeper only had contact with the referee then on one further occasion: “At half time he came to me to ask me if everything was ok. I never had the feeling that he was about to abandon the game and send us home with three points though. It was alright in the end though.”
General manager Klaus Allofs was more than satisfied with the performance of Christian Vander: “He played in front of 1,000 fans on Sunday and then tonight in front of 60,000, but that makes no difference to a good goalkeeper. He was very concentrated and did his job very well. He gave us the stability that we needed. We have every fate in him. There was nothing that he could do about either goal, they were unstoppable. The ball was lobbed into the far corner twice.”
