Werder Bremen have lost the first leg of their Europa League Round of 32 tie against FC Twente Enschede, falling 1-0 on the road. Scoring the winning goal for the Dutch...
Werder Bremen have lost the first leg of their Europa League Round of 32 tie against FC Twente Enschede, falling 1-0 on the road. Scoring the winning goal for the Dutch...
Werder Bremen have lost the first leg of their Europa League Round of 32 tie against FC Twente Enschede, falling 1-0 on the road. Scoring the winning goal for the Dutch was Theo Janssen in the 39th minute with a long-distance shot.
In front of 22,000 spectators at Grolsch Veste Stadium, Werder Bremen started very concentrated and quickly gained the early momentum. Thomas Schaaf’s team had the first big chance of the game in the 21st minute as Twente keeper Sander Boschker could not hold onto Torsten Frings’s shot but Marko Marin shot the rebound wide from seven yards. Werder then were lucky just six minutes later as keeper Tim Wiese was just able to deflect Theo Janssen’s free kick off the crossbar, keeping his team even with the Dutch hosts. Schaaf had to make his first substitution after just more than half an hour, bringing out injured Petri Pasanen in favour of Aymen Abdennour.
Claudio Pizarro had a golden chance to give Bremen the 1-0 lead after 34 minutes. The Peruvian stood alone in front of the Dutch goal after a mistake in the Twente defence. But Pizarro struck his shot directly at Sander Boschker. And the opposition proved more efficient at the other end. In the 39th minute, Theo Janssen was given space in the midfield and he hammered a long blast past Tim Wiese for the opening score. Werder played well in the first half but could not take advantage of their chances and went into half-time trailing 1-0.
Peter Niemeyer had Bremen’s first chance of the second half in the 51st minute but could not beat the Twente keeper’s strong reaction. Wiese needed an excellent save against the strong Janssen just minutes later. Aaron Hunt saw an aggravating yellow card after an hour and will miss the return leg suspended. Werder pushed forward the rest of the game looking for the equaliser but could not knot the game. Still, Thomas Schaaf’s men have excellent chances of reaching the next round of the UEFA Europa League in the return leg on 25 February at Weser Stadium.
The game at a glance:
Twente Enschede: Boschker – Stam, Douglas, Wisgerhof, Tiendalli – Brama, Perez (70’ Tioté), Janssen – Ruiz, N’Kufo, Stoch (86’ De Jong)
Werder Bremen: Wiese – Fritz, Mertesacker, Naldo, Pasanen (32’ Abdennour) – Frings, Niemeyer (77’ Borowski), Hunt, Özil (67’ Almeida) – Marin, Pizarro
Goal: 1-0 Janssen (39’)
Yellow cards: Janssen (89’) - Marin (40’), Hunt (60’)
Referee: Lucilio Cardoso Batista (Portugal)
De Grolsch Veste Stadium: 22,000 spectators
