Diego Denies Transfer Rumours

Speculation linking him to a move to one of the big clubs in Spain, Italy, or England continues almost on a daily basis, but the Brazilian has again refuted the truth of the stories.

“I still have three years on my contract in Bremen and don’t see any reason to leave” he said after Werder’s 5-1 win over Schalke in which he starred.

Media reports in Spain claim he is asking Werder Bremen boss Jürgen Born to be allowed to negotiate with a bigger club with the view to a summer move.

“That just isn’t true” Diego said.  “And it is also untrue that I am unhappy in Bremen.

“It is often so that foreign media reports interpret things wrongly or distort reality” he added.

The mercurial midfielder has hit top form again this season for the Green and Whites after enjoying a spectacular season last year too.

Real Madrid have been the team constantly linked with him with trainer Bernd Schuster a confirmed fan.

source: goal.com

Werder ‘Ice-Cold’ in front of goal

There is no question that things hadn’t exactly been going according to plan for Werder Bremen in recent weeks and, in particular, the attacking department have been swallowing some pretty hefty criticism. As the game against Hertha BSC Berlin indicated, the Green-Whites are on the up-and-up and that trend continued against FC Schalke 04. It would appear that Thomas Schaaf’s men have found a way back to their former strength.

Probably the best example of that is Boubacar Sanogo. The striker from the Ivory Coast had hit some really poor form and failed to even make the squad for last week’s trip to Berlin but he got the chance to prove himself against Schalke and took that impressively. It was Sanogo’s well placed header which made it 2:0 during the first half, but he wasn’t the only one to find the ‘Golden-Touch’ yesterday.

‘Ice-Cold’ is not exactly a term which had been used often of late when describing the Werder strikers but against Schalke 04, the Green-Whites finally found their attackers back in form. All three front men (Boubacar Sanogo, Markus Rosenberg and Ivan Klasnic) got their names on the score-sheet: “We always seem to create chances but sometimes the conversion of those chances eludes us. Today our strikers were ice-cold in front of the goal”, remarked a satisfied Torsten Frings, and goalkeeper Tim Wiese added: “Today almost every chance was a goal. I just hope that continues.”

source: werder.de

Werder steer back on Champions League course

With the impressive 5:1 win over FC Schalke 04, Werder Bremen forced their way back into the race for one of the all important Champions League qualifying places. It was the first win over Schalke for the Green-Whites since August 6th 2004. The win over the guests from Gelsenkirchen saw Thomas Schaaf’s side leap-frog the ‘Royal-Blues’, a direct competitor, into second place in the Bundesliga table and a step closer to the ultimate target.

“We are headed in the right direction now. We intend to continue down that road and return to our old strength”, explained trainer Schaaf with a view to the clubs plans for the coming weeks. The coach saw a determined, passionate and goal-oriented performance from his team. The journalists in the press room were to be heard talking about the ‘Werder of old’ after the match.

Trainer Thomas Schaaf was quite satisfied with what he saw but put the breaks on the euphoria: “The fact that not everything in the garden is rosy was quite clear in the first half. That was pretty disjointed and turbulent”, remarked the trainer. Werder now have their fate in their own hands: “You could see how we can play when our confidence is up”, explained Torsten Frings and team captain Frank Baumann added: “We are in a very good position now and it suits us to defend second place. We don’t want to give that up now.”

Werder Bremen could pick up another three points in their bid to hold on to second spot this coming Tuesday against FC Hansa Rostock: “We hope to be able to ratify the upwards trend and put on a similar performance in Rostock in order to stay on course for the Champions League qualifying spot”, said Tim Borowski on the challenges that lie ahead for the Green-Whites.

source: werder.de

Slomka: Missed Chances Cost Us

Despite a very bright start form the visitors, the home side raced into a 2-0 lead with goals from Baumann and Sanogo before Kevin Kuranyi pulled one back for the Königsblauen before half time.

Three unanswered second half goals from Markus Rosenberg  and an Ivan Klasnic double inflicted Schalke’s heaviest defeat of the season to round off a disappointed week for them following their Champions League exit.

They had a whole host of chances that weren’t taken, with Werder punishing them by taking theirs.

“My team played extremely well in the first half, and in the end the Bremen margin of victory was too high” Slomka mused.

“Unfortunately we wasted too many good chances and I don’t have an answer as to why that was.

“We have to work on that in training.  Understandably every player is very frustrated with the result” he added.

Schalke are now third in the table, one point ahead of fourth place Hamburg, who lost at home to Duisburg today.  Stuttgart could go level on points with a win tomorrow against Bayer Leverkusen.

source: goal.com