Advantage Werder Bremen After Naldo Downs St-Etienne

Werder Bremen 1-0 St-Etienne
Brazilian defender Naldo grabbed the only goal of the game in the first-half to hand Werder a narrow lead to take into the second-leg in France. The German side could and should have scored more, but it wasn’t to be.
First Half
After a moment of silence to honour the victims of this weeks tragic shooting in Germany, the game kicked off with the home side taking the initiative. The first chance fell to Hugo Almeida in the fourth minute when the Portuguese forward found himself clean through with only the keeper Jeremie Janot to beat. He didn’t connect properly with the ball and fired just wide. Werder midfielder Daniel Jensen had to go off after just 13 minutes after an elbow to the face saw him bleeding from the nose and unable to continue.
Almeida went close with a header on 17 minutes after a good run down the right from Diego, but his effort went just wide. The Green and Whites however didn’t have long to wait though with the opening goal coming three minutes later.
Greek midfielder Alexandros Tziolis fluffed the ball on the edge of the area, but fortunately the pass fell to Naldo. The centre-back played the ball to Diego, and when he saw his way to goal blocked by Varrault, Naldo was on hand to fire the ball home.
Nine minutes later Janot in the St-Etienne goal produced a fine save to deny Hugo Almeida with a fine volley following a great cross from Pasanen.
Werder should have gone 2-0 up on 34 minutes. A good attack down the right from Sebastian Boenisch found Diego and his ball saw Torsten Frings fire in a shot that was cleared off the line by Sall. The follow-up from Diego was tipped over the bar by Janot.
It took an eternity for the French visitors to cause Werder any sort of problems but they had two half chances before the half-time interval. A long-shot from Yohan Hartcoeur went just wide on 38 minutes, while Tim Wiese tipped a Paulo Machado free-kick wide two minutes later.
Second Half
Alain Perrin made a change at half-time sending on Blaise Matuidi for Mouhamadou Dabo. Werder began the second 45 minutes a little lax at the back and a dangerous cross from David Sauget missed everybody on its way across the six-yard box. Five minutes in and Dernis fired a shot straight at Tim Wiese.
Eight minutes into the second period and Thomas Schaaf’s side had their first opportunity. Janot punched a Diego free-kick weakly and Naldo was unlucky to fire over.
Claudio Pizarro turned well on 66 minutes before firing in a quick shot, but the French keeper did well to save. Then on 71 minutes Diego went extremely close with a free kick from 25 meters out, that fizzed agonisingly wide. Three minutes later Geoffrey Dernis was denied from point-blank by Tim Wiese after being played through by Matuidi.
Werder had numerous half chances with Claudio Pizarro and Aaron Hunt going close, but they were just unable to put the ball in the back of the net and grab the second goal.
In the end the one goal from Naldo saw them through and with no away goals against them, the German side will be very confident of making it through to the next round.
Goals
1-0 Naldo (20)
Werder Bremen: Wiese, Boenisch, Baumann, Naldo, Pasanen, Frings, Jensen (Hunt 13), Tziolis, Diego, Pizarro, Almeida (Rosenberg 59)
St-Etienne: Janot, Varrault, Benalouane, Sauget, Dabo (Matuidi 46), Hautcoeur, Dernis (Payet 81), Machado (Riviere 72), Bayal Sall, Mirallas, Gomis