A Gamble Pays Off: Werder 4 – 1 Nacional

It could have gone horribly wrong. Thomas Schaaf’s starting eleven did not include the likes of Tim Wiese, Naldo, Marko Marin, Mesut Özil, Tim Borowski, or Hugo Almeida. Instead, we decided to give some of the benchwarmers a good go at Nacional. And the gamble paid off. Werder played an excellent first half of some pretty slick football, with the so-far-underperforming Markus Rosenberg grabbing two goals in the space of a few minutes.

The second half was a different story. I said it before, but I’ll say it again, I hate when Werder go 2-0 up. Because you always worry the “old” Werder will rear its head and we will let the opponents back into the match. And we almost did. Nacional pulled a goal back, and for a while after that it seemed like they may even grab the equalizer.

With ten minutes to go, Schaaf decided to bring on a reinforcement in the form of the magical elf Marko Marin. In those ten minutes, we scored two more goals. One assisted by Marin, one scored by Marin. He sent in a beautiful cross that Moreno headed in past Nacional keeper Rafael for the best goal of the night. Then Clemens Fritz was clear on goal, only to see his shot parried by Rafael, but Marko was there to chip it back over the keeper and into the net. A much deserved reward for injecting some fight back into the tired Werder legs.

So yes, the team did well. The only slightly nerve-wracking glitch was Mieletz looking a bit shaky in goal. He bobbled a clearance and nearly gave away two penalties. But, as it was his first performance for the Green-Whites, and it must have been exciting for it to happen in a European match, I will cut him a bit of slack. Especially considering we didn’t lose. Werder fans might be a little less forgiving had we lost.

The win keeps us three points ahead of Athletic Bilbao, who qualified for the Round of 32 with a win over Austria Vienna. Next matchday sees us take on Athletic to determine who finishes top of the group. I am confused as to whether we have already finished top or not. Some reports say yes, others say we need a point from the Athletic match. If it is determined by head-to-head results, we already have an edge as we have already beaten Athletic. If they win the next match… what happens? Ah, confusion. In any case, I think Schaaf can afford to field this team again against Athletic.

Category: Europa League, Match Report