Bremen out of this world

Werder Bremen's performance in their 6-1 win against 1. FSV Mainz 05 has raised the bar in this season's Bundesliga. Mainz president Christian Heidel spoke for many in describing Bremen's display on Friday night as "football from another planet".

Mainz stunned
Heidel uttered those words at half-time with his team 3-0 down, adding: "I would have preferred to play any other opponents." Home coach Jürgen Klopp added after the game: "I've never seen anything like that at Mainz before." Bremen are now three points clear at the top of the Bundesliga after FC Schalke 04's loss against VfB Stuttgart, but as far as Sport Bild newspaper is concerned: "Werder are playing in a Bundesliga of their own."

'High standard'
Bremen had beaten VfL Bochum 6-0 on 14 October, but coach Thomas Schaaf had not expected another result of that order against Mainz, saying: "You couldn't have expected us to score six goals again. We are setting a very high standard." But his team were fresh from defeating FC Bayern München 3-1 and another win against PFC Levski Sofia on Tuesday would give them a serious chance of pipping holders FC Barcelona in their UEFA Champions League group. They even had a trophy in the bag by August, beating Bayern to claim the German League Cup.

Strike pair star
All eyes on Friday night were on Miroslav Klose and Aaron Hunt, who both scored twice and set up the other's pair of strikes. Klose praised Hunt's efforts after the match: "He is a great striker. We are complementing each other really well. I have no problem letting him take the glory, like with the fourth goal, when he is quicker to reach the ball."

Unselfish Klose
Between them they scored three in the first 20 minutes, including two for Klose - who had gone 797 minutes without a goal before his opener in Mainz. "It was about time I scored, but I really didn't mind that much, as long as the team was scoring lots of goals," Klose said. "I will score my goals when they are needed by the team." Schaaf added: "Today you could see Klose's class and character - he scored when he was supposed to, but he set up his team-mate when he was in a better position."

'Enjoying football'
The coach concluded: "Our game showed that we have plenty of harmony in the team, and that the team is enjoying football." However, he is counting no chickens just yet. "We are not getting over-confident now - we can assess our own performance and we still have a long season ahead of us," Schaaf warned.