“A dream has come true,” enthused Felix Magath as his VfL Wolfsburg players began celebrating a Bundesliga title that few expected them to even challenge for at the start of the season. Only a top-flight presence since 1997, the German champions were able to crack open the champagne after downing Werder Bremen 5-1 on the final day of the campaign.

Slow start
“I knew we were good but I didn’t think we had a chance to win the title,” explained Magath, whose side were still as low as ninth during the winter break, nine points shy of then joint-leaders TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and FC Bayern München. Due to take over at FC Schalke 04 next term, the 55-year-old nonetheless feels his charges were worthy winners in the end. “We’ve put in strong performances all season and I believe we deserved to win the championship.”

Bayern congratulations
While Hoffenheim faded without injured striker Vedad Ibišević after the turn of the year and Bayern never settled into a consistent rhythm, Wolfsburg surged up the standings courtesy of 14 victories in 17 games, losing just twice. Perhaps none of those wins was more meaningful than the 5-1 demolition of runners-up Bayern on 4 April. “I explicitly want to congratulate Wolfsburg for winning the German championship – they deserve it,” said Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, while caretaker coach Jupp Heynckes added: “VfL deservedly won the title. They’ve played the best football, especially in the second half of the season.”

Zwanziger surprise
“Before the season started, I did not count on Wolfsburg finishing in the top five,” admitted the German Football Association (DFB) president, Theo Zwanziger. “For me, this is an incredible achievement which will always be associated with the name Felix Magath. He has managed to build a strong team full of stars and talents and in the end achieved one of the biggest upsets in the Bundesliga in the past few years.”

Team reaction
“At the moment, it’s difficult to realise what’s happening here, but it’s absolutely merited,” explained Wolfsburg midfielder Christian Gentner, who celebrated another surprise Bundesliga title with VfB Stuttgart in 2007. His colleague Sascha Riether was of much the same opinion, saying: “This title is the icing on the cake of a great season, at the end of which we’ve deservedly finished on top.”

Strike duo
The newly-crowned champions made it 15 home victories in succession by overcoming Bremen, having remained unbeaten in their back yard all season. Essential to their success was the incredible form of strike duo Grafite and Edin Džeko, the former topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 28 efforts and his team-mate only two behind. “Today, there will be the biggest party Wolfsburg has ever seen,” promised Džeko.

An extra-time goal from Brazilian midfielder Jadson earned Shakhtar Donetsk a 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup final here on Wednesday to clinch the Ukrainian side’s first European title.

Jadson’s 15-yard shot slipped through the grasp of Werder goalkeeper Tim Wiese in the 97th minute after the teams had been locked 1-1 at the end of normal time.

The Germans thought they had snatched an equaliser in the last minute of the additional period, only for on-loan Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro’s bundled effort to be ruled out for a foul on Dmytro Chygrynskiy.

Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano had finished coolly to give Shakhtar the lead in the first half, before an error by goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov allowed Werder centre-back Naldo to level.

Shakhtar become the first team from Ukraine to lift a European trophy since the break-up of the Soviet Union, while they will also be the last team to lift the UEFA Cup before its re-launch as the Europa League next season.

“We weren’t able to play our usual football, we didn’t put enough pressure on our opponents,” said Werder coach Thomas Schaaf.

“We gave them too much space and lost too many balls. I congratulate Shakhtar, they were the best team on the night.”

Mircea Lucescu’s side settled first at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium and spurned the game’s first clear opening when Adriano shot wide after being cleverly picked out on the cusp of the Werder area by Jadson.

The Ukrainians, inspired by the inter-play of their five-man Brazilian contingent, then went ahead in the 25th minute when Adriano ran onto a loose pass and delicately lifted the ball over the advancing Wiese.

Werder had overturned deficits against pre-tournament favourites AC Milan and local German rivals Hamburg earlier in the competition, and 10 minutes before half-time they drew level when Naldo’s thumping 30-yard free-kick was tamely palmed into the net by Ukraine international Pyatov.

Wiese proved to be made of sterner stuff when he superbly touched away a stinging drive from Mariusz Lewandowski at full-stretch just before the interval.

The German shot-stopper kept out a Jadson free-kick early in the second period as Shakhtar resumed their occupation of the Werder defensive third, the orange-shirted players zipping passes across the pitch with beguiling ease.

Werder missed the promptings of their suspended Brazilian playmaker Diego, but they were inches away from going in front when Pizarro’s glanced header was repelled by a sprawling Pyatov.

Wiese pushed away a long-range effort from Darijo Srna as Shakhtar began extra-time on the front foot and moments later they took a decisive lead when Jadson met Srna’s centre with a low drive that crept beneath Wiese into the bottom-left corner.

The UEFA Cup final in Istanbul on 20 May will be a Germany v Ukraine affair after Werder Bremen, Hamburger SV, FC Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Dynamo Kyiv set up two domestic last-four ties on 30 April and 7 May.

Dynamo meet Shakhtar
Only one of those four teams, Dynamo, did not win their quarter-final first leg a week ago but in the early kick-off they defeated visitors Paris Saint-Germain FC 3-0. Their opponents this time will be Shakhtar, who followed up a 2-0 home win against PSG’s Ligue 1 rivals Olympique de Marseille with a 2-1 victory in France. Dynamo, who knocked out FC Metalist Kharkiv in the Round of 16, are at home in the first leg against Shakhtar, with a first Ukrainian UEFA Cup finalist assured.

Bremen against Hamburg
Lining up against Shakhtar or Dynamo at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium will be a Bundesliga club. Bremen travelled to Udinese Calcio 3-1 up and although at half-time the tie was level, Werder came back to draw 3-3 and progress 6-4 overall. Hamburg were also defending a 3-1 lead at Manchester City FC and José Paolo Guerrero’s early goal proved crucial, as the English club came back to win 2-1 and fall just short. Martin Jol’s men will aim to follow the example of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who knocked out Bremen in the 1987/88 semi-finals, the first of three times Werder have fallen at that stage. Bremen will be at home in the opening leg before travelling to HSV seven days later, but whatever happens there will be a new name on the UEFA Cup in the final season before the launch of the replacement UEFA Europa League.

Two goals by Diego and a Claudio Pizarro strike guided Werder Bremen through to the UEFA Cup semi-finals after Udinese Calcio had wiped out their 3-1 first-leg deficit before half-time.

Pizarro clincher
Despite Diego cancelling out Gokhan Inler’s 15th-minute strike, the momentum was with Udinese at the break as Fabio Quagiarella struck twice. But Diego’s second of the match, on the hour mark, swung the tie back in favour of the Bundesliga side, who added to their tally through Pizarro on 73 minutes moments after Diego had missed a penalty for his hat-trick.

Exciting half
Thunderstorms were predicted ahead of the match, but though the rain stayed away until half-time, other pyrotechnics were thick on the ground. After Werder had gone close when Naldo’s header was deflected wide by team-mate Petri Pasanen, Inler gave his side hope with a lightning strike on the quarter-hour. Receiving a ball from Kwadwo Asamoah, Inler cut inside from the left and dispatched an unstoppable 30-metre shot into the top corner.

Diego strikes
Udinese’s tails were up, now just a goal from taking the initiative in the tie, but they were almost pegged back moments after taking the lead as Hugo Almeida pounced on Clemens Fritz’s right-wing cross, and skewed it wide. The game had opened up and was swinging from end to end when the equaliser arrived on 28 minutes. Cristián Zapata dallied and Diego, so unsure of playing in the build-up to the match, took the loose ball in a flash before turning inside and shooting past Samir Handanovič.

Relieved Bremen Thwart Udinese Recovery … read more »

Milan               2 – 2                 Bremen
Pirlo 27(pen), Pato 33          Pizarro 68, 78

Claudio Pizarro masterminded a dramatic Werder Bremen turnaround at San Siro, beating Dida with two second-half headers to send favourites AC Milan crashing out of the UEFA Cup on the away-goals rule.

Dramatic turnaround
Having drawn 1-1 in the first leg in Germany, first-half goals from Andrea Pirlo and Pato looked to have smoothed Milan’s path to the Round of 16, but it will be Thomas Schaaf’s side who play AS Saint-Etienne in the next round after Pizarro atoned for an early miss with two goals in the second half to dump Carlo Ancelotti’s side out of the competition.

Pizarro Puts Paid to Milan’s Big Plans … read more »