29 January 2007, by Sean Gillen

Almeida on the mark as Werder Bremen cruise to victory

Werder Bremen 3-0 Hannover

Hugo Almeida was on the scoresheet as Werder Bremen stayed top of the Bundesliga with a home win over Hannover at the Weser Stadion. The Portuguese striker came off the bench to net the second as Bremen made an impressive return to action following the winter break.

The hosts got off to the perfect start when Tim Borowski put them ahead on five minutes. Miroslav Klose broke down the right before lifting a perfect cross to the back post for the midfielder to nod in for his second goal of the season.

Hunt should have made it two when he was found by Klose inside the area, but he dragged his shot off target. Hannover were unlucky not to draw level almost immediately when veteran left-back Michael Tarnat struck a sweet drive which thumped off the post.

As the half went on, the visitors began to cause Bremen several problems, and looked nothing like a team hoping to avoid a relegation battle. The Werder full-backs, Pierre Wome and Clemens Fritz, looked particularly vulnerable to Hannover’s positive attacks.

Despite Hannover’s impressive showing throughout, Bremen always looked the more dangerous side going forward, due in large part to the intelligent running of Klose, and only a great save from Robert Enke denied the forward when he was put through on goal.

Hannover may have felt hard done by to go in at half time behind, but Bremen grew in strength after the interval, and created by far the better opportunities during the second period, with Enke largely responsible for keeping the scoring down at times.

Borowski threatened to add to his early opener when he burst into the box and forced Enke into a superb left-handed save, before Hunt failed to make the best of a good chance on the right after another good counter.

Almeida thrown into fray

With the momentum of the game beginning to fade, Bremen coach Tomas Schaaf replaced the wasteful Hunt with Portuguese striker Almeida. The Porto-owned man scored in his opening two league games after joining Bremen in August, but had not registered in the Bundesliga since.

Almeida immediately gave an example of his threat, picking up the ball outside the area and shifting it onto his left foot, before firing a low shot to Enke to brilliantly tip round the post.

The fragile nature of Bremen’s 1-0 lead was underlined when Hannover’s Jan Rosenthal floated a ball into the box, which goalkeeper Tim Weise misjudged and had to scramble back onto his goal line to tip onto the bar.

One minute after the game was almost back on level terms, Almeida got the decisive second, and Klose was again involved. A long ball upfield found the World Cup striker in behind the Hannover defence, and he squared the ball across the area for Almeida to finish from eight metres.

Klose’s movement soon caused further problems, and after receiving the ball on the left, he cut inside Vinicius and drew a foul from the defender to earn a penalty. Klose stepped up himself, but found Enke in good form, and the goalkeeper made a double-handed save.

The third goal came when Bremen’s player of the season so far, Diego, who was unusually quiet on the day, whipped in a free-kick for Klose to head at Enke, and former Hannover defender Per Mertesacker turned in the rebound.

Bremen still had enough time to miss another good chance through Naldo and give former Ajax striker Markus Rosenberg his debut, before clinching the three points and preparing for a midweek visit to Bayer Leverkusen.

Werder Bremen:
Wiese, Fritz, Wome, Mertesacker, Naldo, Frings, Borowski, Jensen (Schulz, 79), Diego (Rosenberg, 83), Hunt (Almeida, 60), Klose
Yellow Cards: Wome (82)

Hannover:
Enke, Bergantin, Tarnat, Zuraw, Lala, Balitsch, Yankov, Stajner (Fahrenhorst, 80) Bruggink (Hashemian, 72), Huszti (Jendrisek, 63), Rosenthal
Yellow Cards: Balitsch (43), Tarnat (56)

Goals:
[1-0] Borowski, 5
[2-0] Almeida, 67
[3-0] Mertesacker, 74