In a nerve wrecking Bundesliga clash with Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen managed a 1:1 draw and took a vital away point in the race for the championship.
In a nerve wrecking Bundesliga clash with Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen managed a 1:1 draw and took a vital away point in the race for the championship.
In a nerve wrecking Bundesliga clash with Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen managed a 1:1 draw and took a vital away point in the race for the championship.
Lukas Podolski gave an exteremely dominant Bayern side the lead after just seven minutes in a somewhat one sided first half. After the break, Werder raised their game and found an equaliser with a co-production from Hugo Almeida and Markus Rosenberg in the 66th minute. The Green-Whites are now still three points adrift of league leaders Schalke (1:1 in Hanover) and keep Bayern the same distance behind them.
Klose pulls out
There was a surprise in the Bremen ranks prior to kick-off. The slightly injured Torsten Frings and Aaron Hunt were both fit to play but top striker Miroslav Klose was not even on the bench. The German international was still suffering with back problems after a collision with the post during last weekends 3:0 win over Bochum. The result was an all new strike duo of Aaron Hunt and Hugo Almeida in the starting eleven.
Bayern made an emphatic start in front of a 69,000 strong crowd at the Allianz Arena. Tip Wiese was forced into a lightening quick reaction save from Claudio Pizarro early on as he took a corner on the volley. Werder’s keeper wasn’t so happy though after seven minutes as he had to pick the ball out of the back of his net. Whilst the home side continued to push, Werder reacted nervously with concentration lapses and unneccessarily mis-placed passes, leaving gapping wounds in the Bremen defence.
Podolski gives Bayern the lead
It was to be no more than a matter of time before Bayern would punish Werder’s mistakes. Bastian Schweinsteiger passed to Mark van Bommel who in turn held his nerve as two Werder defenders converged upon him and played the ball to the unmarked Podolski in the Werder box. With Tim Wiese stranded the young German international had no problems rolling the ball over the line to make it 1:0 for the home team. With the wind in their sails, the Munich club continued to press and force the Green-Whites into making further mistakes.
A second goal looked like a mere matter of time but the visitors had a duo of keeper Wiese and the frame of the goal to thank for keeping them in the tie. Bayern had undoubtedly the chances to increase their lead as Hargreaves forced Wiese into a flying save from a tight angle (18’) before Lukas Podolski then found his master in the Werder keeper. Fron the resulting corner Schweinsteiger saw his diving header strike the post and bounce out of the danger zone (20’). Seven minutes later the German international midfielder then fired a rocket of a free-kick from 20 meteres out goalwards which struck the underside of the crossbar.
It took Werder until the closing stages of the first period to release themselves from the consistant ‘Red’ march and had their best chance of the first half in the 42nd minute. Hugo Almeida played Aaron Hunt in with a clever back heel but the young forward couldn’t keep his effort on target.
Bremen raise their game and hit back
After the break the Green-Whites upped the tempo and became more forceful with Christian Schulz replacing Daniel Jensen on the left side of midfield. The visitors looked decidedly more stable at the back and a great deal more comfortable on the ball whilst working their way deeper into the Munich half but without creating much by the way of clear chances on goal. Bayern, on the other hand, were more patient and carved a fantastic opening for themselves on the counter attack. Lucio made another of his powerful breaks forward and picked out Podolski who was again frustrated by the in form Tim Wiese.
On the hour Werder coach Thomas Schaaf had decided it was time to take a greater risk and throw on an extra attacker with Markus Rosenberg coming for midfielder Jurica Vranjes. The result was that Aaron Hunt dropped back in behind the two front men. Before long the switch was to prove a master move by the Werder trainer. Torsten Frings played a long ball from his own half towards Almeida who got between Lucio and van Buyten. The Portuguese front man lobbed the advancing Oliver Kahn and inches from the goal line Swedish striker Rosenberg nodded the ball over the line to make it 1:1 (66’).
By this stage of the game the two sides were evenly match and the equaliser was not undeserved by Werder. The game became more hectic in the closing phase and the number of fouls increased leading to the game noticeably losing it’s flow.
By the end it was Bayern who came closer to snatching a winner as Salihamidzic (71’), Podolski (79’) and Hargreaves (86’) all had the chance to seal the points but were foiled by either nerves or Tim Wiese. A hard fought point for Werder Bremen who will be aware of important it could be in their title challenge.
