Inter date brings Bremen back to Italy

FC Internazionale Milano face German opposition for the first time since beating FC Bayern München in last season's UEFA Champions League final when they welcome Group A rivals SV Werder Bremen on Matchday 2.

• While Inter were 2-0 winners against Bayern in Madrid, Bremen need no reminding of their last encounter with Italian opposition. Only last month they beat UC Sampdoria in dramatic fashion in the play-off round.

• Both teams began the group stage with 2-2 draws, Inter being held at Dutch champions FC Twente and Bremen battling back from two goals down to rescue a point against Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Previous meetings
• This is the third season Inter and Bremen have met in the UEFA Champions League group stage. The first time came in 2004/05, Inter winning 2-0 at home through two Adriano goals then drawing 1-1 in Germany after Valérien Ismaël and Obafemi Martins traded goals.

• Iván Córdoba, Javier Zanetti, Marco Materazzi and Dejan Stanković all started for Inter on 14 September 2004, Esteban Cambiasso coming on as a late substitute. Petri Pasanen and Tim Borowski were in the Bremen side.

• The clubs faced each other again in 2008/09 but this time Bremen held the upper hand. Claudio Pizarro cancelled out Maicon's goal in a 1-1 draw in Italy and the Peruvian scored again in Bremen's subsequent 2-1 home win with Markus Rosenberg and Zlatan Ibrahimović also on target.

• The lineups for the second San Siro encounter on 1 October 2008 were:
Inter: Júlio César, Maicon, Córdoba, Materazzi (Burdisso 20), Zanetti, Stanković (Quaresma 72), Cambiasso, Muntari, Balotelli, Ibrahimović, Adriano (Cruz 78).
Bremen: Wiese, Pasanen, Naldo, Mertesacker, Prödl (Fritz 86), Frings, Baumann, Özil (Jensen 82), Diego, Rosenberg (Hunt 78), Pizarro.

Match background
• Inter have won their last four UEFA Champions League home games.

• In contrast, although Bremen won their play-off first leg against Sampdoria 3-1, they trailed 3-0 in the return until Rosenberg levelled the aggregate scores in the third minute of stoppage time. Pizarro then struck in extra time to send Bremen through 5-4 on aggregate.

• On their most recent visit to San Siro in 2008/09, Thomas Schaaf's men recovered a two-goal deficit to hold AC Milan 2-2 and win a UEFA Cup round of 32 tie on away goals. Pizarro struck twice, giving him four goals from six visits to the stadium.

Team ties
• Rafael Benítez bettered German opposition during his Liverpool FC side's triumphant UEFA Champions League campaign of 2004/05, overseeing 3-1 home and away wins against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the last 16.

• Mikaël Silvestre spent 1998/99 with Inter, appearing 18 times in Serie A and scoring once. He also played six times in the UEFA Champions League.

• Pizarro struck for Bayern in a 2-0 group stage win at Inter on 27 September 2006.

• Alongside Pizarro in Bayern's team that night was Lucio, who spent nine seasons in the Bundesliga with Leverkusen and then Bayern where he played with Torsten Frings (2004/05) and Borowski (2008/09).

• Marko Arnautović spent last term on loan at Inter from Twente but played only three Serie A matches.

• Samuel Eto'o appeared as a 65th-minute substitute in FC Barcelona's 1-1 group stage draw at Bremen on 27 September 2006.

• Daniel Jensen came off the bench during Denmark's 2-1 defeat of Eto'o's Cameroon at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• Stanković helped Serbia earn a 1-0 win against a Germany side including Per Mertesacker and Marko Marin during the group stage in South Africa.

• Cambiasso's saved spot kick sealed Argentina's shoot-out defeat by a Germany team featuring Mertesacker, Frings and Borowski in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals.

• Pasanen captained a Finland side beaten 2-1 by Wesley Sneijder's Netherlands in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier on 7 September.