With Claudio Pizarro unavailable for Saturday’s game in Hannover, the two Werder strikers were very much in the limelight. Markus Rosenberg and Hugo Almeida were given the chance...
With Claudio Pizarro unavailable for Saturday’s game in Hannover, the two Werder strikers were very much in the limelight. Markus Rosenberg and Hugo Almeida were given the chance...
With Claudio Pizarro unavailable for Saturday’s game in Hannover, the two Werder strikers were very much in the limelight. Markus Rosenberg and Hugo Almeida were given the chance to show what they can do together in the starting eleven – and they experienced vastly opposing fortunes. Both worked and battle but only Almeida scored – a fact that gives the Portuguese international a decisive advantage over his Swedish colleague. ‘Rosi’ didn’t just fail to score but also missed the best chance of the game in the 72nd minute. It was no wonder the front man was left hanging his head at the end of the tie.
“I hope that I can get my name on the score-sheet again when we play Leverkusen on Tuesday to help me put this horrible game out of my head. We had a lot of chances but just didn’t put the ball in the net – that’s something we have to work on. That goes for me too. The chance I had is one that you put away 99 times from 100 and you miss it just the once. Unfortunately that one time was today.” There was some small amount of consolation for the striker from general manager Klaus Allofs. The experienced former front man commented: “That wasn’t the kind of chance that you just have to stick your foot out for. Markus made the decision to hit the ball directly but didn’t connect correctly. That was just bad luck. From ten of those chances he would score eight. You can’t curse him for that.”
Trainer Thomas Schaaf saw his sides attacking game so: “There could have been another glut of goals like there was the last time we played each other. There were certainly enough chances. We just weren’t good enough today to put the ball in the net after we’d done the build up work.” Schaaf’s opposing number on the Hannover bench, Dieter Hecking commented: “Thomas is right, Werder had the clearer chances but we had a number of openings on the break that we didn’t finish. In the end the draw was a fair result.”
