Aside from being a dangerous goalscorer, Claudio Pizarro is clearly a man of his word. Suspended by Werder Bremen last weekend for being late to training, the Peruvian striker promised "to correct my mistakes in the Milan match" and promptly conjured up the two goals that eliminated AC Milan from the UEFA Cup Round of 32 on Thursday.
The two sides had drawn 1-1 in Germany, but the tie was veering heavily in favour of the Serie A giants after an Andrea Pirlo penalty and a Pato strike had given them a 2-0 second-leg advantage at San Siro. Then Pizarro intervened, heading in with style on 68 and 78 minutes to send his team through at the competition favourites' expense. "At last the team showed that what we've been saying about their potential is not simply fantasy," commented Bremen's general manager Klaus Allofs, keenly aware that the club lie eleventh in the Bundesliga. "Today our judgement was confirmed. We've been complaining about missing the feeling of success and now it's there. We have to get stronger through this."
Those sentiments were echoed by Pizarro. "Of course I'm really happy about the score and my two goals; it's a great feeling," he said. "But now we have to go on and play exactly the way we did today in the second half. We have to be convinced of our own strength and continue in the same way. This match against AC Milan was a great performance and one of the best matches since my return to Werder." The matchwinner denied his team could now think of themselves as the new tournament favourites, however: "We know how we can play on a good evening, above all after today, but there are too many other top teams still in the competition. What I can promise is that we'll try everything to win."
Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti would probably not be surprised if they do go all the way after praising the German outfit for their performance. "Werder Bremen dominated the game from the first to the last minute, and that hurts more than the result or the elimination," he said. "We had the same problems both in the first and second half; it was too easy for them to take shots on our goal. They played with a higher tempo. Now we must try to play better and bring this difficult phase to a close. Our season is not over yet, though of course we won't play in Europe again. We've failed one of our objectives and that's disappointing, but it's too soon to say that our whole season is a failure."
