Werder Bremen players and management alike agreed after the 1-0 loss against Hamburg that the performance in the first half was not good enough and the loss unnecessary...
Werder Bremen players and management alike agreed after the 1-0 loss against Hamburg that the performance in the first half was not good enough and the loss unnecessary...
"This was just not our day today, at least not in the first 50 or 55 minutes of the game. It is not enough against Hamburg to play just one good half of football. We slept through the first half and gave them the confidence they needed," said manager Klaus Allofs, who took the words right out of the mouth of head coach Thomas Schaaf. "We have to realise that a game consists of two halves. And you have to play your best in both," said the coach.
Despite a good showing, Werder keeper Tim Wiese had to reach behind him one time and was understandably aggravated. "We just didn't get into the game. We lost too many balls," said Wiese. And Schaaf added: "The goal we gave up showed what happens if you're not active. If someone has so much space they will score a goal. We just gave them too much space." Torsten Frings also had to shake his head thinking about the goal allowed. "We were just not good in the first half. But we still had our chances as well. Hamburg also had two good chances but the goal came out of nowhere. We totally fell asleep in the back," said Frings.
Captain Frings was not aggravated about the bad conduct of some of the Hamburg fans but about the performance of his team.
Even the necessary striker substitution of Markus Rosenberg for Hugo Almeida did not bring much. "We were thinking about subbing out Hugo already at half time because he took a hit on his heel and couldn't really run that well. Before he couldn't go at all, we put in Rosenberg, who is trying to prove himself," said Schaaf.
In the waning stages of the contest, Werder pushed forward looking for the equaliser but Hamburg saved the lead from Piotr Trochowski's goal in the first half. Allofs gave a fair assessment afterwards, saying: "In a European semi-final like this you have to do things right. And today it was mainly Hamburg who did the right things. At the end they had a bit of luck but they had earned it."
