Werder Bremen had to acept their second Champions League defeat on Tuesday night. Coach Thomas Schaaf's side were beaten 2:1 (2:1) by Panathinaikos in Athens.
Werder Bremen had to acept their second Champions League defeat on Tuesday night. Coach Thomas Schaaf's side were beaten 2:1 (2:1) by Panathinaikos in Athens.
Werder Bremen had to accept their second Champions League defeat on Tuesday night. Coach Thomas Schaaf's side were beaten 2:1 (2:1) by Panathinaikos in Athens.
The game got off to a worse start for Werder Bremen than they possibly could have imagined. Thomas Schaaf made a number of changes to the side which beat Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend with captain Frank Baumann returning to the starting eleven instead of Daniel Jensen and Christian Schulz filling in for Jelle van Damme who had picked up a groin injury. The visitors had their first test after just four minutes. Patrick Owomoyela failed to clear a Flavio Conceicao free-kick and was relieved to see Evangelos Mantzios' resulting shot find the side netting.
Double Werder woe insides eight minutes
The next incident had more severe consequences for Thomas Schaaf's eleven. Sandor Torghelle broke into the box from the left and as Naldo crossed his path he allowed himself to fall easily and fooled the French referee Eric Poulat who gave a very questionable penalty. Ezequiel Gonzalez, the Greek captain, converted the penalty to give the homeside a very early lead (6').
But Werders early troubles were still not over. Ivan Klasnic couldn't finish off a move started by Johan Micoud to equalise in the seventh minute while at the other end the Greeks went one better. Resulting from a Baumann loss of possession in the midfield, the home side swithched instantly frokm defence to attack against a Werder defence who now were distinctly at sixes-and-sevens. Schulz dived in with a sliding tackle on Torhelle who had only the keeper to beat but the clearance fell to Mantzios who picked his spot from close range. 2:0 (8').
Klose goal revives hope
Werder shook off the shock well and managed to gain control of the match with the Athens side now happy to pack their defence with up to nine men at times creating a fortress around their penalty area. Werder had a number of good chances through Klasnic (14', 23'), Baumann (27') and Klose (36') but failed to force their way past the Greek sides keeper Mario Galinovic. It took a perfectly placed ball from Johan Micoud into the path of Klose who drove without hesitation past the onrushing keeper, who did get a hand to the ball, to get Werder back into the tie (41') and make the half time score 2:1 for the Greeks.
The half time break didn't appear to have a positive effect on the German team who began the second half as lack lustre as they had the first. Firstly Johan Micoud was called upon to make a desperate las ditch clearance in the Werder box (47') befoe Gonzalez danced past a number of Werder defenders only to be denied by the upright (49'). Whilst Panathinaikos attacked aggressively, Werder left often too much room for their opponents to manouver most often down the left flank, where Seric was causing Patrick Owomoyela severe problems. Thomas Schaaf threw caution to the wind bringing Aaron Hunt for Frank Baumann (60') and Nelson Valdez for Christian Schulz (75') but the Greeks still had the better chance to score. Gonzalez spun and crashed a volley against the crossbar after some confussion in the box (68'). Andreas Reinke was twice involved firstly making a fine save from Seric (87') and then having to scramble a ball off the line following his own poor attempted clearance (90').
Werder, on the other hand, had only one real chance of equalising when all four front men tried their luck in a pinball like situation in the 80th minute but it was all to end in disappointment. To add salt to their wounds, a second yellow card for Ivan Klasnic after a foul on ex-Dortmunder Flavio Conceicao four minutes from the end saw him recieve his marching orders. So the score remained, Werder unneccessarily losing 2:1 and now facing a difficult up-hill strugle for second round qualification with no points for their efforts.
Johnnie Muldoon
