Galatasaray humbles Werder 4-1

While Thomas Schaaf has hopes the Green Whites had turned the corner, the nightmare performance in the semi-final of the Radyospor Cup against Istanbul giant Galatasaray was shocking in its ineptitude as they lost 4-1. Michael Skibbe's side ran roughshod over Werder early with Turkish internationals Sabri Sarioglu and Arda Turan scoring in the first fifteen minutes. Mesut Özil was able to bring one back five minutes before the break but before time ran out. However in the final ten minutes Torsten Frings was sent off and Ayhan Akman and Ferdi Elmas scored to bring the match to a final 4-1 margin.

From the surface, losing in a friendly is not a major concern but given Werder had "a-list" line-up that includes Clemens Fritz,Torsten Frings, Per Mertesacker and Claudio Pizarro, more should be expected.

Thomas Schaaf cut an optimistic tone to the match saying:

"We did have some good stages where we passed the ball very well and created the odd goal opportunity. But we have to take from this that it was altogether too little."

However Claudio Pizarro wasn't so kind saying:

"We may be in the middle of the preparations and it may be normal that players are tired and we lose a game. But it is not normal that we give up so many goals."