Werder defeats Hamburg 3-2 to advance to finals of UEFA Cup

Despite being done a goal heading into second-leg of the UEFA Cup the Green Whites stormed into the Volksparkstadion and defeated HSV 3-2 to advance to the finals on aggregate. Werder will now face Ukraine side Shakhtar Donetsk in the finals on 20 May in Istanbul.

Werder posed the first threat of the day as twelve minutes in Claudio Pizarro sent Sebastian Boenisch's cross from right over the bar from close range. However a minute later as Joris Mathijsen supplied the always dangerous Ivica Olić a perfect through ball with the Croatian international driving into the net past keeper Tim Wiese. Just before the thirtieth minute Diego and Claudio Pizzaro linked up with the former sending the ball over Frank Rost to square the match. Both sides came close before break but most concerning was Diego receiving a yellow-card, disqualifying him for the final. After the break the fast-pace continued, with Werder dodging a bullet when Jonathan Pitroipa couldn't turn-in Marcell Jansen's low cross. Six minutes past the hour when Claudio Pizzaro drove from the circle and struck a soft goal from twenty-five plus metres to make it 2-1, tying the aggregate. With seven minutes left a peculiar incident occurred as a simple backpass was thrown off-course from a object thrown onto the pitch, resulting in a corner. From the resulting corner, Hugo Almeida flicked on the ball for Frank Baumann to head in for a confident 3-1 lead. Four minutes later Ivica Olić came roaring back to bring the match 3-2. In the final moments Hugo Almeida got into a modest pushing match with Jerome Boateng, earning a yellow card and like Diego will miss the final. That aside the match finished with Werder leaving with the win and making plans for Istanbul.