UEFA Champions League – Match Preview: Werder Bremen versus Tottenham Hotspurs
Tottenham Hotspurs experienced their first ever outing in the UEFA Champions League as they face Werder Bremen in their first group stage match in Germany. Tottenham Hotspurs have long waited for this chance as in the past two decades all of their efforts have been directed towards qualification for European football’s toughest competition i.e. the UEFA Champions League.
Hotspurs go into their first ever UEFA Champion’s League group stage match with a patchy run of form. So far domestically, Harry Redknapp’s men have failed to impress. They have regularly produced an inconsistent display of football, sometimes the London club has been brilliant whereas on other times they have left much to be desired.
Bremen on the other hand have played relatively less football than Hotspurs so far in the Bundesliga season as the English Premier League started earlier than the German league season. However, Bremen were busy with their qualification for the UEFA Champions’ League group stages. The German giants sealed their place in the first 32 teams of the Champions League after they disposed of the Italian club Sampdoria in the UEFA Champions League’s qualification rounds.
Both of these teams are a part of Inter Milan’s group, thus their emphasis will be on qualification for the next round of the tournament by finishing at the second placed spot in their group i.e. Group A. Tottenham have previously never ever faced Werder Bremen in European competitions, thus it will be a first time that the former German champions will be facing the English club.
Werder Bremen’s squad has grown progressively weaker over the summer as they parted with their creative midfielder Mesut Ozil. The German midfielder was sold to Real Madrid by his club for a mere sixteen million pounds. Bremen’s all focus will be on nullifying the Tottenham midfield, which is the English club’s strongest portion of the starting eleven.
Most likely, Hotspurs will play an attacking game with Van Der Vaart in midfield alongside either Huddlestone or Palacios. Tottenham are without their Croatian star midfielder, Luka Modric, Modric injured his leg in Tottenham’s draw with West Bromwich Albion over the past weekend.
Harry Redknapp will have some tough decisions to make as he will have to choose between Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Robbie Keane as far as his strikers are concerned.
Bremen on the other hand will be without their prominent marksman Claudio Pizzaro, whose goal fired them through to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. Pizzaro is currently injured and thus the former Chelsea man is not available for selection for Bremen’s tie against Tottenham.
Werder Bremen’s form has not been that impressive as well as out of their last five matches; they have won two, drawn one and lost two. Tottenham have a similar record as they have coincidently had the same sort of results in their past five matches.
Bremen will rotate some of their players for the encounter as they had a Bundesliga game on the weekend against the German champions Bayern Munich. That match ended in a goal less draw for the former German champions.
In a pre-match press conference, Bremen’s central defender Silvestre, who previously used to play for Manchester United and Arsenal, told the media that Werder will be focusing on keeping a clean sheet first and foremost. If Bremen are indeed to keep a clean sheet then they will have to somehow combat the aerial threat that is provided by Peter Crouch.
Silvestre was quick to label the English international striker as “dangerous in the air” and also mentioned how respected Werder Bremen are in the UEFA Champions League. He emphasized the fact that his team mates are good enough to give good performances in European club competitions.
It will be interesting to see how things pan out at Weserstadion Bremen. Werder will be favourites to win the match as they are playing on their home ground but Tottenham do have the capacity to nick an unlikely draw due to their star studded midfield.
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