Werder Bremen breathed a sigh of relief. A 2-0 lead in the opening Europa League group stage match at CD Nacional Funchal turned into an even game until a late victory...
Werder Bremen breathed a sigh of relief. A 2-0 lead in the opening Europa League group stage match at CD Nacional Funchal turned into an even game until a late victory...
Werder Bremen breathed a sigh of relief. A 2-0 lead in the opening Europa League group stage match at CD Nacional Funchal turned into an even game until a late victory. "After the 2-2 goal I was really mad because we had a really big chance to make it 3-0," admitted Werder keeper Tim Wiese.
"In the first half we moved the ball well but we didn’t shoot enough," said captain Torsten Frings. "Luckily we kept our nerves after falling asleep twice. We want to make the best out of the Europa League and it’s important to bring home a victory in a game that did not look that way." Head coach Thomas Schaaf added: "It was unnecessary to endanger the victory with two goals on dead ball situations. We were too passive guarding our men or the order just wasn’t right. But it was a positive that we still found our way back and got the winning goal."
Two-goal scorer Pizarro: “I had something to make good"
"It was decisive that we win today on the road. We made things more difficult for ourselves. We led 2-0 and then allowed two goals to even the game. And on their second goal the guy I was assigned to scored. So I had something to make good. In the end the fact that I scored two goals and forced the penalty foul is of course a nice feeling," said Claudio Pizarro. The unusual conditions outside did not cause any unusual difficulties for the team. But it did for some of the some 100 travelling Werder fans. There was no public transportation leaving from the isolated Estádio da Madeira after the game. But a dire situation turned lucky in the end for 12 Werder fans as manager Klaus Allofs and head coach Thomas Schaaf allowed them to travel to Funchal on the team bus. "This was a very special situation. Of course we gladly helped," said Allofs.
