“Leaf back through the history books…”

As if such a win – unbelievably high scoring! Against the champions! And closest rivals! Away from home! – wasn’t pleasing enough on its own, all of those who witnessed the Green-Whites sensational 5-2 win at the Allianz-Arena went on an immediate search for sensational comparisons. Being able to categorise the win would maybe make it all the more tangible – it seems so hard to really believe!

“Leaf back through the history books to the game against Real,” began general manager Klaus Allofs. He was of course referring to the calibre of the opponents, their status in European club football, their name alone, the majesty of the performance and not to forget the personnel situation in Bremen at the time: “Back then we had a lot of injury problems too.” For last November’s amazing 3-2 win in the Champions League, there were even more first choice players absent – but what was true back then was also true of Saturday’s game in Munich: “We had a good team together anyway, that didn’t throw us off. It just means that you’ve got to work harder to compensate for those who are missing.”

The performance of the winners is only one element worth flicking through the history books to acknowledge. The situation surrounding a very inferior FC Bayern has also left many speechlessly searching for facts and figures to prove that such “Disasters” (as Franz Beckenbauer put it) have occurred in Munich down the years. The quality of the Bremen performance is made all the more clear by just how far back one must search for evidence of such ‘Bayern-Bloopers’. It was the highest defeat in the clubs history since March 1979 – almost 30 years ago. Back then Bayern crumbled 0-4 against Arminia Bielefeld. After the game Tim Wiese queried rhetorically: “When was the last time that anyone scored five goals here against Bayern?” The answer is 1976, when FC Schalke beat Bayer 0-7.

source: werder.de