"Nobody wanted it this turbulent!"

Two-goal scorer Diego is celebrated after masterfully using the space his team-mates created for him in the both legs.
First Team
Friday, 17.04.2009 / 12:39

Werder Bremen's amazing road unbeaten streak remained intact and it was crucially important on Thursday night! Werder have not lost on foreign territory in international competition this season and bagged...

Werder Bremen's amazing road unbeaten streak remained intact and it was crucially important on Thursday night! Werder have not lost on foreign territory in international competition this season and bagged a spot in the UEFA Cup semi-finals after their sixth draw in the last six away matches. Per Mertesacker was beaming after the match. "We have experienced so many highs and lows this season in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. And now all of a sudden we are standing here and we still haven't lost and are in the semi-finals. But we needed plenty of effort to get here. It was great that we were able to score that final equaliser. We are absolutely thrilled about advancing because we know we had to knock off a very strong opponent. We are very proud of ourselves," said Mertesacker.

 

And just like Mertesacker, all the other Werder players have to breathe a sigh of relief before realising that it was enough in the end. "Nobody wanted it to be this turbulent, this difficult or this exciting. But we wrecked our good starting position in the first half and basically had to start over in the second half at 0-0. We did get better but we also had luck with Udinese twice hitting the post," admitted defender Sebastian Boenisch.

 

And it's no surprise that head coach Thomas Schaaf also needed some time to settled down at the post-game press conference after the thriller. "That was pretty crazy. We did not play very well in the first half. After such a hectic first half we used the break to calm ourselves down and get the players more receptive. We didn't play totally different in the second half. But we played much better. We were able to better use our offensive quality and that helped correct some problems and deal better with the enormous pressure. And our goals took away any hope they had," said Schaaf.

 

But the Bremen coach paid Udinese Calcio plenty of respect. "They deserve a huge compliment. They played two great games and really made it a very entertaining tie. That was almost too much for our nerves," said Schaaf.

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