24 September 2007, by Lorna Danion

Quickfire Almeida makes history in Germany

Werder Bremen 4-1 VFB Stuttgart

Hugo Almeida scored the quickest brace in Bundesliga history as Werder Bremen snapped out of their recent poor form with a thumping win over champions Stuttgart.

The Portuguese scored twice in the space of fifty seconds inside the first four minutes as Bremen put two damaging defeats to Dortmund and Real Madrid behind them to move up to 8th in the Bundesliga.

Almeida was drafted into the starting eleven by Thomas Schaaf in place of Markus Rosenberg, and repaid his manager’s faith with the opening goal after a little over two minutes. The former Porto man cushioned Diego’s chipped pass down to Daniel Jensen, who returned the ball to Almeida inside the area and the Portuguese thumped his finish past Rafael Schafer.

Things got even better for the 23-year-old when he doubled his tally immediately, after Stuttgart lost possession quickly after the re-start. Again Diego played his part, finding Almeida in an almost identical position from which he scored his first goal, with the forward this time opting for a clinical low shot across goal and into the bottom corner.

An incredible start to the match saw two more goals inside the first fifteen minutes. First Stuttgart pulled one back after their attack sprung the Bremen offside trap and Sami Khedira squared for Mario Gomez to slide the ball past Tim Wiese.

The visitors’ renewed hope lasted around one minute, however, as Bremen restored their two-goal advantage. Petri Pasanen received the ball on the right flank and delivered a quality cross for Ivorian striker Boubacar Sanogo to head home.

Almeida injury

A entertaining start to the match at the Weserstadion turned somewhat sour for Almeida ten minutes before the break, as a hard challenge from Pavel Pardo damaged the Portuguese’s back. After trying to play on, Almeida succumbed to the problem and was replaced to a rousing ovation from the home crowd.

Stuttgart switched to a three-man defence in the second half and Roberto Hilbert and Mario Gomez both struck the woodwork early in the second period as the change appeared to bear an improvement.

However, Bremen held out under the pressure from their opponents and scored a clinching goal in the dying minutes, with former Porto midfielder Diego rounding off another superb individual display with a 25-metre shot, which took a deflection off Antonio da Silva.

Werder Bremen:
Wiese, Pasanen, Tosic, Naldo, Mertesacker, Baumann, Vranjes, Diego, Jensen, Almeida (Rosenberg, 37), Sanogo (Harnik, 84)
Yellow Cards: Diego

Stuttgart:
Schafer, Magnin, Osorio (Farnerud, 46), Meira, Tasci, Pardo (da Silva, 55), Khedira, Hilbert, Basturk (Marica, 71), Cacau, Gomez
Yellow Cards: Magnin, Tasci, Pardo, Khedira, Cacau

Goals:
[1-0] Almeida, 4
[2-0] Almeida, 5
[2-1] Gomez, 13
[3-1] Sanogo, 14
[4-1] Diego, 88