Relieved Fritz ready for Hamburg test

Clemens Fritz cut a relieved figure after helping Werder Bremen recover from an alarming first-half showing to run out 6-4 aggregate winners against Udinese Calcio in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. "It was intense," said the German international full-back.

Schaaf fury
Fritz admitted that the visitors' coach, Thomas Schaaf, was furious at his side at half-time after they had relinquished their hold on a tie that was within their grasp after a 3-1 first-leg win. That lead that had been eradicated by the interval, though, after Gökhan Inler had begun the fightback with a wonderful long shot that was matched by Diego's 28th-minute reply. Two quickfire goals from Fabio Quagliarella then brought Udinese level on aggregate but, fortunately for Werder, Diego scored again on the hour to settle the nerves before Claudio Pizarro put the match beyond doubt.

'Mistakes'
"It was hard for us to find ourselves 3-1 down," Fritz told uefa.com. "Thomas Schaaf was not happy by any means because we had played so badly and made so many simple mistakes. We were very worried to find ourselves in that position. At the outset we hadn't expected to find ourselves in that situation. We had intended to keep our shape at the back and keep a very compact defensive line but we made so many errors.

'Fresh approach'
"We tried to put things right in the second half and fortunately we did," added Fritz, a member of the Bremen side that reached the last four of this competition in 2006/07 only to lose out to RCD Espanyol. "We had to go out for the second half with the mindset that it was now 0-0 and that we had to start afresh. Diego's second goal was a very important goal for us and then the third settled us."

'Great intensity'
Fritz felt that the energy expended by Udinese to score their three goals effectively exhausted them for the second half but he commended the Friulani for their valiant performance. "Udinese played very well in the first half, they started very fast," said the 28-year-old. "They went straight on the offensive and they attacked with great intensity and we didn't respond well enough. In the second half they got a little bit tired but it was very intense."

Hamburg await
Now the right back, who has been capped 23 times by Germany, is looking forward to his second UEFA Cup semi-final in three seasons, and a meeting with opponents Bremen know well: "We are very happy, we wanted to go through and now we are in the semi-final where we play Hamburger SV. It'll be a tough match between two German sides, a north German derby. We also still have to play them in the German Cup semi-final and the league. They are all important matches but we really want to reach the UEFA Cup final. If I had to choose to win one of the semi-finals I would choose both."