Hamburg sole losers among UEFA Cup quartet
Monday, April 27, 2009
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There were contrasting weekend results for Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen ahead of their UEFA Cup semi-final opener, while Ukrainian rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk both claimed narrow home wins.
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There were contrasting weekend results for Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen ahead of their UEFA Cup semi-final meeting on Thursday, while Ukrainian rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk, who meet in the other tie, both recorded narrow home victories.
Bremen fightback
Hamburg's title hopes took a hit at BV Borussia Dortmund, a 2-0 defeat pushing Martin Jol's team down to fifth, albeit just three points adrift of leaders VfL Wolfsburg. Bremen are not aspiring to such lofty ambitions this term but showed they can produce the goods in the face of adversity, rallying from two goals down to defeat VfL Bochum 1848 3-2. Dynamo edged out bottom side FC Kharkiv 1-0 on Sunday, a result which re-established their 12 point-lead over the team they meet in Kiev on Thursday, Shakhtar, who had defeated FC Chornomorets Odesa by the same score on Saturday.
| FC Dynamo Kyiv v FC Shakhtar Donetsk |
| FC Dynamo Kyiv 1-0 FC Kharkiv (Ninković 9) Yuri Semin: "The main thing is that we got three points, though our performance and finishing could have been better. Our players became a little nervous towards the end − they were thinking about securing the points. I must also point out the brilliant display from the Kharkiv goalkeeper. The condition of Roman Eremenko and Artem Kravets is not so good. Eremenko has a cold and we're hoping he'll be ready for Shakhtar but Kravets is more doubtful." |
| FC Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 FC Chornomorets Odesa (Willian 47) Mircea Lucescu: "It was a really tough game because the pitch was far from ideal. It's very hard to play attacking football on and I hope it will be better for the match against Dynamo Kyiv. The condition of the pitch is very important to us because we play a fast, attractive game. Today's game could have ended 5-0 to us or finished 1-1. We earned three important points and now we can prepare for Dynamo. All of us are thinking about the UEFA Cup semi-final, that's why we maybe weren't 100 per cent committed today." |
| Werder Bremen v Hamburger SV |
| Werder Bremen 3-2 VfL Bochum 1848 (Almeida 54, Naldo 70, Diego 79; Sesták 16, 44) Thomas Schaaf: "We don't do quiet games. There always has to be something special. In the first half we didn't do enough − Bochum worked very hard. In the second half we improved and saw what we are capable of. I'm happy that we turned the result around but once more we had to put in a lot of hard work." |
| BV Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Hamburger SV (Kehl 33, Frei 90pen) Martin Jol: "It's strange when you have to compliment a team that lost. We created good opportunities in the first 20 minutes and if we had scored things would have been easier. Then we made the mistake which decided the game. Afterwards, we did not go that extra step. We wanted to get at least a point but it didn't work out for us. Dortmund played very well." |
