calamitous

Calamitous is all I can think of when describing Werder Bremen's 3-0 loss to Panathinaikos at Weserstadion in Champions League play. After this past weekend's resounding victory over Hertha BSC, the club was bathed in optimism as it appeared that they had turned the corner on recent problems.

That changed immediately as a capacity crowd suffered through a nauseating performance where attacking creativity of the club seemed to be bled-out from the weekend. While the visitors were responsible for most of the efforts before the break the match was dead-locked at the break. However thirteen minutes after the restart, Vagelis Mantzios collected an unsuspecting pass from Alexandros Tziolis at the end of the box, turned quickly and drove the ball past Tim Wiese. With twenty minutes remaining Giorgias Karagounis crushed Werder's hopes with a strike from from the edge of the penalty area. With seven minutes remaining Werder had lost its focus and the third goal was added as a Alexandros Tziolis drive that was heading wide, struck Petri Pasanen and sailed into the net.

After the match Klaus Allofs was pointed when he noted how the club didn't play as a team and lacked cohesiveness. He went farther praising Thomas Schaaf but also suggesting players who weren't able to play as a team, should not be a part of the club.

Green-Whites flying high for Panathinaikos

Following the triumphant 5-1 victory over the Berliners, the Green-Whites are flying high as Panathinaikos visits for their Champions League match at Weserstadion today. Following the draw in Athens, Group B is wide open with Inter Milan holding the top spot down with seven points, Cypriot squad Anorthosis second with four and Werder at third and Henk Ten Cate's club following with three and one point respectively. A win for the Green-Whites, particularly in conjunction with a Inter win would see their hopes for advancing to the knockout round increase significantly.

In addressing the opportunity Thomas Schaaf said:

"Draws will not get you into the next round of this competition. Our aim is to progress and to do that we need to start winning. At least we don't have to rely on anybody except ourselves."

Panathinaikos is likely to play a highly defensive match and nullify the Werder attack as they did at the Olympic Stadium in Athens as evidenced by Henk Ten Cate's comment that they will keep them "as far from goal as possible".

Werder will welcome back Clemens Fritz to the pitch. Prior to the match he showed how anxious he is to get back to playing by stating:

"I would have preferred to have gone without this week of rehabilitation training. I’m sick and tired of all the talk. I am well aware of the fact that I haven’t started the season particularly well and had a couple of poor games, but I think that goes for everyone in the team. The same thing has been churned out for weeks now and at some stage you really start to believe that you are in poor physical condition."

"I feel good and am looking to force my way back into the team through good performances in training. I’m just looking to the future now, the rest I can leave behind me. The team took its first positive step forward with the win over Hertha and I want to win back my place in order to help the team in moving further up the table."

Thomas Schaaf commented before todays match that the squad is fit:

"No-one is carrying any knocks. Everyone got off the pitch unscathed".

Werder will however be without Torsten Frings as he is under suspension.

Panathinaikos will miss Austrian international Andreas Ivanschitz, young Greek international Sotiris Ninis and Souza.