Hoffenheim edged out by Bremen

Werder had started off the better of the two sides, and went ahead on 27 minutes, Naldo with a thunderous free-kick which had been laid off to him by Frings. Hoffenheim came into the game before half-time, Vedad Ibisevic coming close with a strike that whistled just wide.

At the start of the second half, Hildebrand pulled off a decent save from Marko Marin, but from thereafter, Hoffenheim came back into the game.Their hard work was rewarded when substitue Prince Tagoe pwered home a header on 72 minutes to give Hoffenehim a deserved equaliser.

However, joy quickly turned into despair as Werder went back merely three minutes later, Hugo Almeida with an excellent finish from the edge of the box which gave Hildebrand no chance.

Hoffenheim will now have the chance to concentrate on their league form, while Werder march on.

Views on the game

Thomas Schaaf
We've come a step forward again. All in all we're very satisfied that we've gone through. It was hard work, we managed it.

Naldo
Marko Marin said to me this week that I need to score another free kick. Today was my lucky day! We were fully focussed throughout the game and I hope that we can now make it to Berlin for the final.

Per Nilsson
We wern't in the game in the first 20 minutes, but from that point we fought hard, and tried hard to put our bad start behind us. When it went 1-1 I was convinced that we would win the game. We had made up for our mistakes. I'm so disappointed.

Jan Schindelmeister
We played well before and after it was 1-1, and put them under pressure. When it went 2-1 it didn't look good, but the team didn't let themselves down today. You saw that the guys really believed in themselves today. We wanted to go through today of course, but we couldn't do it. Now we have to regroup and take the positives from tonight's match into Saturday's game.

Christian Eichner
I'm hugely disappointed of course. If you watch what happened in the course of the game, apart from the first 20 minutes, we played pretty well and created some goalscoring opportunities. The crucial moment was conceding in the second goal so soon after equalising.

Ralf Rangnick
We're naturally disappointed. More than anything because of the way we played- We were superb. I believe, that with the team we had available to us tonight, that we couldn't have played any better. We linked up superbly across the park, and we were convinced that the game was turning our way after it went 1-1. But Bremen responded magnificently, it was a great goal from Almeida that won it for them.

Prince Tagoe
We played well, we just didn't have the luck. I was very happy with my goal. I will continue to work hard in training to make myself a better all-round player.

 

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