Champions League Matchday 5: Late Bloomers

By: Jan | November 30th, 2007

Carlos Alberto - Boubacar Sanogo Just as the Bundesliga clubs were all a little late to the Champions League party, I’m a little late with this short wrap up. But if you know your way around The Offside, you might have noticed that all matches have been covered by the Scotland Offside, the Valencia Offside and the Real Madrid Offside respectively. The Bundesbag blog provided a quick summary of this week’s European action as well.

Werder Bremen 3-2 Real Madrid
I’m sure Arian will want to wax lyrical about this match, so I’ll keep this short. Bremen were without Tim Wiese, Tim Borowski, Torsten Frings, Diego and Hugo Almeida. Clemens Fritz had to be substituted after just six minutes. To be honest, I had already given up on Werder before the match had even started. I was rather hoping the Lazio - Olympiacos fixture would produce a favourable result, to give Werder a small chance of playing in the UEFA Cup next year. Yet, a great performance by the whole team and a Real Madrid side, who probably took the match too lightly, helped earn Bremen a play-off match against Olympiacos.

VfB Stuttgart 3-2 Glasgow Rangers
Stuttgart extended their good run in the Bundesliga to the Champions League. With nothing but pride to play for, they at least made sure the fans got a nice farewell present from the team. In other good news, both Cacau and Marica put their names on the score sheet. Especially Marica struggled to find his feet at Stuttgart, so his goal against Frankfurt and Rangers should do his confidence the world of good. Stuttgart’s European adventure for this season might be over, but they are on their way to play a good role in the second half of the Bundesliga season. They are currently trailing a Champions League spot by 8 points, but with Hamburg and Bremen guaranteed to take points from each other, they can close the gap to 5-6 points, if they beat Dortmund at home.

Valencia 0-0 Schalke 04
Another 0-0 draw for Schalke, but in no way comparable to the great performance against Chelsea. It was a rather lacklustre game from both sides and Schalke must be blamed, that they couldn’t take advantage of a Valencia side playing with only 10 men for 60 minutes. In fact, Valencia had more of the game in the second half. The draw means that Valencia are out of the Champions League. Schalke will now host Rosenborg, to decide who is going to join Chelsea in the second round. One of the bigger surprises of this Champions League season. I think few people would have put money on Schalke or Rosenborg advancing from this group. Schalke will need to win, while a draw is enough for Rosenborg. Should Schalke draw or lose the match, they even risk dropping out of Europe completely, with Valencia getting the UEFA Cup as consolation. Like Stuttgart, Schalke can also claim lost ground to the Champions League spots this weekend.