Hamburg and Werder Give Bundesliga Two In The Final Eight

A stun­ning come back from a two goal deficit saw Ham­burg join Werder Bre­men in the quar­ter finals of the UEFA Cup.

Going to Istan­bul, hav­ing already con­ceded a pre­cious road goal, Ham­burg had to score a goal against Galatasaray. A dread­ful first half, where Mar­tin Jol’s men were played off the pitch, saw them go down fur­ther when Jerome Boateng took down Milan Baros for a penalty that Harry Kewell fin­ished with aplomb in the 42nd. Things got worse after the break when Baros took an Arda, who had an out­stand­ing game, cross and craftily net­ted a sec­ond. Ham­burg looked done and dusted.

But the vis­i­tors stunned the 2000 Cham­pi­ons and scored twice within three min­utes, both goals com­ing from Paulo Guer­rero. The first was engi­neered by Jonathan Pitroipa, mov­ing down the wing where Gala had defended fero­ciously until the two-goal lead. The sec­ond was a long ball spe­cial that Olic laid off for the Peru­vian. As Galatasaray chased a goal to win the game, Ham­burg absorbed the pres­sure and then hit on the counter to put the con­test out of reach with a late goal by Olic.

They join their north­ern neigh­bors in the last eight, as Werder scored two early goals in St. Eti­enne, by Prodl and Pizarro, and rode out the remain­der of the match to draw with the French side and win the tie on aggregate.

In a week where Uli Hoe­ness was demand­ing pub­lic money to fund Ger­man teams in Europe, it seems that that he for­got that there is still plenty of tal­ent in the Bun­desliga. With 3 of the last 16 teams in Euro­pean com­pe­ti­tion, Hoe­ness is going to have a tough time sell­ing his plan. The draw for the quar­ters of both cups will take place tomorrow.

Tagged as: Paulo Guerrero, Uli Hoeness