Shakhtar Donetsk v. Werder Bremen
Stadium: Sukru Saracoglu Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey
Competition: UEFA Cup Final
Date: 20 May 2009
Kickoff: 18:45 GMT, 14:45 EST
Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen will fight for the right to lift the UEFA Cup! footballlens will be bringing you the action live! Log on to the site 15 minutes before kickoff for the live-blog! In the meantime, feel free to leave comments or make predictions below!
Match Preview:
It’s the final year of the UEFA Cup, and the two squads that will compete for the prestigious and tradition-laden trophy have never lifted it before. Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen both want to win this trophy and would love nothing better than to close out this competition in style.
Werder Bremen have the bigger names and, according to the oddsmakers, are slight favorites. They have German internationals like Torsten Frings, Per Mertesacker, and Clemens Fritz. They have a dynamic play-making midfielder in Diego. They have former Chelsea hitman Claudio Pizarro and Portuguese international Hugo Almeida scoring the goals up front. However, Werder have been wildly inconsistent this season. They’re languishing in tenth place in the Bundesliga, where they’ve won 12 matches and lost 12 (pending next weekend’s final league match against leaders Wolfsburg). Despite their mediocre league form, they could win a Cup Double as they’re also in the finals of the DFB Pokal. Football really is a funny sport sometimes.
In the semifinals, Werder prevailed over their domestic rivals, Hamburg SV, with the help of one of the most fortuitous occurrences in recent football history. After losing the first leg by a score of 1-0 at home, Werder were leading the second leg by a score of 2-1 when a Hamburg backpass took a bad bounce off a plastic cup and went out for a corner. Frank Baumann then converted the gift corner for the crucial third away goal which propelled Werder to the Final. They’ll hope that they didn’t use up all their luck in the Semis, especially since they won’t have the aforementioned Diego. The Juventus-bound midfielder who compared himself to Zinedine Zidane is suspended for the match. Almeida is also out due to yellow card accumulation, while Claudio Pizarro and Markus Rosenberg missed Saturday’s 3-1 loss to last-place Karlsruhe with injuries. Mertesacker is likely gone for the rest of the season after having ankle surgery following the Semifinal victory over Hamburg.
As for Shakhtar, they might not have the big names, but they’ve excelled by playing excellent defense while getting timely scoring up front from their Brazilian contingent. They may not be as celebrated as some of their countrymen, but Fernandinho, Jadson, Ilsinho, and Luiz Adriano have been getting the job done as Shakhtar have knocked off several of Europe’s best and most famous clubs en route to the Finals. Tottenham Hotspur, CSKA Moscow, Olympique Marseille, and domestic rivals Dynamo Kyiv have all fallen victim to Shakhtar’s brand of efficient football. Since entering the UEFA Cup from the Champions League, Shakhtar have only conceded four goals and have scored twelve.
Shakhtar will also come into this match in better domestic form as they’ve won their last six league matches in a row. They won’t have as many injury or suspension issues as Werder, as only midfielder Tomas Huebschman is suspended. If they defend they way that they’ve been doing, then it’s extremely likely that they’ll become the first Ukrainian team to hoist the UEFA Cup, and the final team ever to do so.
Who will go down in history as the final UEFA Cup Champions? Tune in and find out!
“Shakhtar Donetsk v. Werder Bremen – Live Blog – UEFA Cup Final – 20 May 2009” was originally published at footballlens.com – football news.
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