Werder Land A Champions League Coup

First Team
Thursday, 23.11.2006 / 07:32

Werder Bremen hoisted their flag and sent a message out to footballs elite on the fifth match day of Group A in the Champions league. 36,900 fans crammed into the Weser Stadium to see the Green-Whites turn over English champions FC Chelsea 1:0 (1:0) thanks to a first half goal from Per Mertesacker (27’).

Werder Bremen hoisted their flag and sent a message out to footballs elite on the fifth match day of Group A in the Champions league. 36,900 fans crammed into the Weser Stadium to see the Green-Whites turn over English champions FC Chelsea 1:0 (1:0) thanks to a first half goal from Per Mertesacker (27’). A draw against the mighty Barcelona in the final group game would be enough to see Werder qualify for the knock out stages of the tournament ahead of the Spanish giants.

 

Trainer Thomas Schaaf made two changes to the starting eleven which drew 2:2 with Alemannia Aachen last week. Daniel Jensen took the place of Jurica Vranjes and slotted in in front of the back four allowing Torsten frings to move out to the right. For the first time this season, Hugo Almeida got the nod to partner Miroslav Klose up-front ahead of Aaron Hunt.

 

Quality from the kick-off

 

Neither side was will to sit back and test the other out giving the fans in the stadiukm a display of high quality football from the out-set. From a good cross by Pierre Womé, Miro Klose slid centimetres past the ball (8’). At the other end it was Obi Mikel, who was chosen ahead of Andriy Schewtschenko, put a header inches over the bar, showing Chelsea were here for the win too (9’).

 

Werder took control of the proceedings over the next 20 minutes and played out a number of good openings. Almeida hammered in a shot from the edge of the box which whipped past the post (10’) and the Chelsea keeper Carlo Cudicinin had to be alert to stop a drive from Diego (14’). Full back Geremi did well to block an effort from Almeida after a neat pass from Diego (16’). The London side were not allowed to play the football they wished too and often looked uncomfortable from Bremen set pieces.

 

Khalid Boulahrouz was only able to turn a Per Mertesacker header from a Frings free-kick away for a corner (26’). From the subsequent corner, Frings again found the head of his lofty centre half and Mertesacker’s header took one bounce before landing in the back of the Chelsea net (27’). Werder retreated having taken the lead and were almost punished by Ballack on two occasions. Firstly the German international came close with a header from a Joe Cole cross (33’) and then coolly urned Womé to get a shot away (41’) but from both efforts Tim Wiese was on hand to do his job.

 

Green-White defence too solid for Ballack & Co.

 

After the break, Frings attempted to fox Cudicini with a directly struck free-kick but the Italian keeper was on his post and diverted the danger (50’). Chelsea upped the tempo but Werder were up to the challenge. On the few occasions that the English side did manage to break through the midfield, the back four were on hand to mop up the danger. One good example of the defensive qualities of the German side was shown on the hour as Mertesacker’s perfect positioning foiled a clear opening for Chelsea. The towering defender had no problems coming to terms with Schewtschenko as he was introduced either (63’).

 

The Ukrainian caused some problems with a free-kick from 23 meters, which Tim Wiese plucked out of the bottom corner, (70’). Joe Cole then drove in a shot on the 75 minute mark which squirmed just past the up-right. As the match entered it’s closing phase, the Green-Whites had less and less chances to release the pressure on their defence but the back line was up to the task at every turn. It was only with a hit-in-hope from Michael Essien, which also spun off target in the 86th minute that Chelsea at all broke through. The London side had to accept a defeat against a well drilled Werder side who now can look forward optimistically to their visit to Barcelona which will decide who progresses to the latter stages of Europe’s top club competition.

 

Johnnie Muldoon

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