Werder is close but not enough

Although victorious, the Green Whites  1-0 defeat of Saint-Étienne in the UEFA Cup at Weser-Stadion drew few accolades as it puts the club in a difficult position heading to the second match in France.

Manager Klaus Allofs said after the match:

"You can be satisfied with a 1-0 victory because it's not a bad result. But for how the game went, it's not enough. We didn't have enough energy and just couldn't get the spark. In attack, we were not consequential enough to give Saint Etienne more problems. And it looked like we were tired mentally."

Tim Wiese wasn't so generous as he said:

"This is really sad what we gave our fans. Guys were hardly running in the second half. There were times when we used to go full power against these kinds of teams and score four goals. But we just don't have that in us at the moment I guess. You can sense a difference with us if we are playing against Inter or AC Milan or against a team like Saint-Etienne. If we play there like we did today it's going to be very difficult."

Summarily the match was in many ways a perfect example of Werder's year. Close but not enough. Great attacking intent but promises were punctuated with dismal performance. For much of the match the Werder controlled the run of play "somewhat" but were in-truth controlled by Saint Etienne who wouldn't let Werder to attack freely in the final third. The lone goal came twenty minutes after the opening whistle with a bit of chance as a loose ball was sent in from twelve metres by Naldo but following that goal both sides couldn't find the netting.