Werder Bremen proved there is life after Mesut Ozil with a convincing 3-1 win over Sampdoria at home in the first leg of their Champions League qualification match on Wednesday.
Bremen have never lost to an Italian side at home and Thomas Schaaf’s men maintained their proud record which puts them in pole position for next Tuesday’s second leg in Sampdoria.
The three goals by Clemens Fritz, captain Torsten Frings and Claudio Pizzaro came just 24 hours after Bremen sold Germany’s rising star and playmaker Ozil to Real Madrid.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Bremen’s loss may be Real’s gain, but the north German club took a big step toward a lucrative Champions League place by seeing off the Italians.
Sampdoria gave themselves a late lifeline as striker Giampaolo Pazzini out-jumped Germany centerback Per Mertesacker to score a valuable away goal ahead of the second leg, but Bremen are favorites to join fellow Bundesliga sides Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 in the draw for the group stages.
“I am sure that we will score a goal in Genoa, but it is annoying that we conceded a goal late in the game,” Bremen’s director of sport Klaus Allofs said.
Schaaf admitted he was relieved to see his side score three goals.
“We made life hard for ourselves at the start, but we improved after the break and — thank god — we scored some goals,” Schaaf said.
Both Bremen and Sampdoria had their chances to score in the first half as Bremen striker Hugo Almeida could only head over the bar after a deflected shot from Pizzaro.
At the other end, Pazzini missed an early chance as Sampdoria made a bright start, but it finished 0-0 at the break.
Germany midfielder Fritz broke the deadlock in the 51st minute when defender Fernando Tissone made a mistake just outside the penalty area. The 29-year-old unleashed an unstoppable shot that screamed past Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Curci and into the back right-hand corner of the net.
Bremen then made sure they would take the ideal result to Italy next Tuesday when defender Stefano Lucchini hauled down Bremen’s Sebastian Proedl in the penalty area on 66 minutes.
Referee Stephane Lannoy wasted no time showing him a second yellow card and the subsequent red, while awarding Werder a penalty.
Former Germany midfielder Torsten Frings slotted home the penalty.
Pizarro made it 3-0 just two minutes later when Almeida back-heeled the ball back into the path of the Peru international and he wasted no time in rifling his shot past Curci on 69 minutes, before Pazzini’s late header.
Sampdoria now have it all to do in the return leg at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Meanwhile, Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama scored a penalty as Hapoel Tel Aviv won 3-2 at Red Bull Salzburg in their playoff first leg.
Moldovan champions Sheriff Tiraspol, bidding to make the group stages for the first time, lost 1-0 at Swiss club Basel and Portugal’s Braga, also yet to qualify for the first round proper, beat Sevilla by the same scoreline.
Anderlecht drew 2-2 at Partizan Belgrade, the only Serbian club to have played in the group stages, in Wednesday’s other tie.
Enyeama gave one of the best goalkeeping performances at this year’s World Cup when he restricted Argentina to a 1-0 win in the first round, repeatedly foiling Lionel Messi.
On Wednesday, he showed a different side to his game as he calmly converted a third-minute penalty for the Israeli league champions in the less glamorous surroundings of Salzburg’s half-empty stadium.
Salzburg, Austria’s biggest-spending club, foiled in their last three attempts to reach the group stages, leveled with a Nikola Pokrivac shot in the 28th minute.
Ben Sahar and Itay Shechter netted either side of halftime for Hapoel, before Roman Wallner pulled one back for the hosts with a 66th-minute penalty.
A 62nd-minute header by Matheus gave Braga their 1-0 win over Sevilla after the Spaniards had controlled the first half.
Valentin Stocker’s close-range header earned Basel victory over Sheriff, who had Alexandr Erokhin sent off in the 86th minute, before visiting goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov saved a late Benjamin Huggel penalty.
“I’m very happy with the result, especially as we didn’t concede a goal,” Basel coach Thorsten Fink said.
In Belgrade, the four goals came in 13 second-half minutes as the game came to life after a cagey first period.
Guillaume Gillet put Anderlecht ahead with a powerful header from a Jan Lecjaks cross, but Brazilian forward Cleo claimed his sixth goal of the campaign to level for Partizan and a Lecjaks own-goal put the hosts in front.
Anderlecht replied when Brazilian substitute Kanu headed the ball into the path of Roland Juhasz, who scored from close range.
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