Petri Pasanen jumped up from the bench, knelt in front of his team-mates, took their hands and shook them so energetically as if he was mixing a winner's cocktail. Head coach Thomas Schaaf leapt up, turned to...
Petri Pasanen jumped up from the bench, knelt in front of his team-mates, took their hands and shook them so energetically as if he was mixing a winner's cocktail. Head coach Thomas Schaaf leapt up, turned to...
Petri Pasanen jumped up from the bench, knelt in front of his team-mates, took their hands and shook them so energetically as if he was mixing a winner's cocktail. Head coach Thomas Schaaf leapt up, turned to his bench players and unleashed a scream full of joy. Both Pasanen and Schaaf were all celebrations in front of the bench in the 78th minute.
"That really did us good. It was a really great feeling," said the Finnish international defender after game. "Yeah, I was celebrating, but inside I was thinking the goal came 10 minutes too early. That was like déjà vu with a happy end. Six years ago I was here with Ajax Amsterdam in exactly the same situation. And then we lost 3-2. But today everything worked out," added Pasanen. "I'm very happy. My god! That was Milan! And we advanced!"
The somewhat surprising aspect of the success against the team with the most international titles in the world is that not one fan of either team could seriously doubt that Werder deservedly advanced to the UEFA Cup Round of 16. Milan head coach Carlo Ancelotti gave the best reasoning: "We may have led 2-0 but we did not deserve the lead. We never had the game under control. Werder were better physically and tactically. It was a sad night for Milan. But the better team moved on."
Bremen manager Klaus Allofs saw things similarly: "Today the team showed that it's no fantasy what we have been saying about the potential of this team over the past few weeks. And our expectations were confirmed today. You can say that we played four games this season against Milan teams and did not lose one game." And the manager said Bremen just has to keep it going over the next few weeks. "We always complained that we were lacking a real big success. Now we have one. And we have to draw strength from it."
Werder laughed off talk that the Green-Whites should now be considered the top favourites to win the UEFA Cup title. "Is that really your opinion?" asked Claudio Pizarro dumbfounded, thinking of all the criticism of the past weeks. "No, we are not all of a sudden favourites. We know what we can do. But there are a lot of other good teams still in this competition."
