José Mourinho: "Werder Bremen Is A Top Club"

First Team
Tuesday, 12.09.2006 / 16:50

Werder Bremen's chance of causing a massive upset when they face FC Chelsea could lie in the pressure which weighs upon the English champions with regard to the Champions League this season. The London sides coach, José Mourinho made that very clear in the pre-match press conference this afternoon.

Werder Bremen's chance of causing a massive upset when they face FC Chelsea could lie in the pressure which weighs upon the English champions with regard to the Champions League this season. The London sides coach, José Mourinho made that very clear in the pre-match press conference this afternoon. The trainer was qulck to distance himself from suggestions that his team are clear and runaway favourites. "You can't always say that we must win every game in this competition. We are one of at least ten favourites. It wouldn't be fair if the other teams involved didn't really have a roll to play."

 

To gratify his theory, Mourinho rattled off the names of the other favoured clubs: “Just take Barcelona, who want to defend their title. Valencia will have a lot of fun in this tournament and Liverpool have bought more players than Chelsea in recent months. Milan are Milan – you’ve always got to watch them. Real Madrid have just bought Emerson and Fabio Cannavaro from Juventus. Bayern Munich may have lost Ballack but still have a strong team. All of these teams could win the Champions League.” With a smile on his face the Portugese coach commented on the favourites roll: “I reckon if we finish third in the group and go into the UEFA Cup then we will definitely be favourite for that competition.” A comment which was frowned upon by the British press.

 

Mourinho was determined to make it very clear to the collective press that this will be a very difficult group to progress from: “We don’t need to discuss Barcelona. Levki Sofia are an unknown entity with a young side and a young trainer. Werder Bremen are a top German club.” His opinion has not been changed by Werder’s DFB-Cup exit: “We all know that cup is cup, anything can happen. It is especially difficult to maintain your concentration just prior to a Champions League game against Chelsea. I’m sure that the concentration and motivation, that failed Werder on Saturday, will be all the stronger by Tuesday night. We have no fear of Bremen but I’m sure they’re not afraid of us either.”

 

Somewhat less respect was displayed by Chelsea’s new signing, Khalid Boulahrouz, who made the move from Hamburg SV to London just before the transfer window closed. The Dutch defender sees Chelsea as clear favourites: “With all respect, football is played much more slowly in the Bundesliga than it is in the Premier League. Some of the games in Germany are like chess matches with opponents waiting for a move. Here it’s attacking football for every team all the time.” The defender is no longer bitter about the sore defeat which Hamburg suffered against Werder in May: “It’s not about revenge for me tomorrow, it’s about three points. The rest is in the past.”

 

To finish off the press conference, José Mourinho commented with a curious statistic which aimed to show how difficult Chelsea have had it in recent Champions League ties: “In recent years Chelsea have constantly had the Champions League winner in their group for the first round. First Liverpool, then Porto and then Barcelona.” There is no doubt that they don’t intend to see this trend continue. Next year the coach wants to hold the trophy again as he did with FC Porto despite all of the favourites and a difficult group.

 

Johnnie Muldoon

 

CHELSEA v WERDER BREMEN - Facts and figures. (from FC Chelsea)

 

Chelsea’s overall record in European competition is: played 118, won 63, drawn 29, lost 26.

 

This will be our fifth appearance in the Champions League. In 1999/2000 we lost in the quarter-finals to Barcelona after extra time in the Nou Camp, 2003/04 and 2004/05 we reached the semi-finals losing to Monaco and Liverpool and last season were again beaten by Barça in the round of 16. In all we have played 50 games, won 25, drawn 13, lost 12.

 

Since the arrival of José Mourinho Chelsea have dropped only four points in the six Champions League group games at Stamford Bridge and conceded only one goal.

 

Chelsea’s last defeat at Stamford Bridge was against Barcelona in February. Our win on Saturday against Charlton was our ninth successive home victory in all competitions and a win against Werder Bremen will equal the club record 10 set in 1910/11 and 1919/20.

 

Werder Bremen’s overall record in European competition is: played 149, won 70, drawn 31, lost 48

 

Werder Bremen’s European Cup record is played 38, won 17, drawn 7, lost 14. This will be their sixth appearance. In 1965/66 they lost to Partizan Belgrade in the second round, in 1988/89 AC Milan defeated them in the quarter-finals, 1993/94 they reached the group stage and in 2004/05 Lyon beat them 10-2 on aggregate in the round of 16.

 

Last season Bremen were again eliminated at the last 16 stage this time by Juventus. This will also be the second successive season they are playing Barcelona. Last season in the group stage they lost on both occasions 0-2 at home and 1-3 at the Nou Camp.

 

The German side have lost five of their last six away Champions League games drawing the other one. Werder Bremen’s last away win came in their final group match in 2004/05 against Valencia (2-0).

 

In 56 European games at Stamford Bridge Chelsea have lost three times. Only Lazio (1999/2000 1-2), Besiktas (2003/04 0-2) and Barcelona (2005/06 1-2) have defeated us.

 

The referee is Kyros Vassaras from Greece. He has taken charge of two Chelsea games before, both wins. They were our 3-0 home victory over Slovakian side Zilina in a Champions League qualifier in August 2003 and our away 1-0 win in Stuttgart in February 2004 in a Champions League knockout tie.

 

Vassaras’ most high profile games have been the second leg of the quarter-final between Villarreal and Inter last season and the semi-final between Milan and PSV Eindhoven the season before.

 

There are no suspensions from either side.

 

Werder Bremen have played an English team only once in European competition. Arsenal beat them 6-2 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup quarter-final in 1999/2000.

 

Chelsea however have played German opposition on nine occasions:

 

1965/66 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup quarter-final: TSV Munich 1860, A 2-2, H 1-0.

 

1997/98 European Cup Winners’ Cup final VfB Stuttgart 1-0

 

1999/2000 UEFA Champions League Group Stage: Hertha Berlin, A 1-2, H 2-0

 

2003/04 UEFA Champions League, Round of 16: VfB Stuttgart, A 1-0, H 0-0.

 

2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-final: Bayern Munich, H 4-2, A 2-3.

 

Bremen’s honours include the German Bundesliga four times and the German Cup five times including the League and Cup double in 2004. They’ve also won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1992.

 

Chelsea’s European honours are the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971 and 1998 and the UEFA Super Cup in 1998.

 

Last season Bremen finished runners-up to Michael Ballack’s Bayern Munich with an away record of won 9, drawn 4, lost 4 in the Bundesliga and now enters the Champions League for the third successive year.

 

This season will be Chelsea’s tenth in succession in Europe.

 

Werder Bremen’s Bundesliga results this season:

 

Hannover 96 A 4-2 Diego, Almeida, Klose, Jensen.

 

(Borowski missed penalty)

 

Bayer Leverkusen H 2-1 Klose, Almeida

 

Schalke 04 A 0-2

 

The team for their last Bundesliga outing against Schalke on August 25th was: Wiese; Naldo, Fritz, Pasanen (Hunt), Wome (Schulz); Baumann (Zidan), Borowski, Frings, Diego; Almeida, Klose.

 

Werder Bremen’s Thomas Schaaf is in his eighth year as Head Coach. He also played over 260 games for the club between 1978 and 1994.

 

Germany international Miroslav Klose scored five goals in each of the last two World Cups winning the Golden Boot in Germany this summer. He was the Bundesliga’s top scorer last season with 25.

 

Chelsea’s leading Champions League appearances-makers are: Frank Lampard 33+1, John Terry 32, William Gallas 30, Claude Makelele 27, Eidur Gudjohnsen 21+6, Damien Duff 20+7.

 

Our top Champions League scorers are: Frank Lampard 10, Tore André Flo 8, Didier Drogba 6, Eidur Gudjohnsen 5, Hernán Crespo 4, John Terry 4, Dennis Wise 4.

 

The scorers in last season’s round of 16 1st leg match between Bayern Munich and AC Milan were Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko. The score was 1-1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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