
Werder Bremen bagged a place in the UEFA Cup knockout stages after Claudio Pizarro and Markus Rosenberg struck to seal a 2-1 win over Inter Milan in Champions League Group B on Tuesday.
Werder deserved their victory and finish third by leapfrogging Anorthosis Famagusta, who lost 1-0 at group winners Panathinaikos.
Inter, who had already qualified, must be content with progressing as group runners-up after another lacklustre European performance.
Inter coach Jose Mourinho, whose team are six points clear in Serie A, said his side merited a tough test in February's last 16 having stuttered so far in the Champions League.
"Now we deserve one of the strongest teams. Manchester United, the European champions, or Barcelona, currently the best in Europe, to really judge our potential in the Champions League," he told Sky.
"I wanted to rest some players but I think the team still underperformed."
Pizarro, who scored in the 1-1 draw at the San Siro in October, netted from close range on 63 minutes after an unusually shaky Julio Cesar could only parry Mesut Ozil's drive.
Strike partner Rosenberg added a similar second nine minutes from time after more poor Inter defending before substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic blasted in a consolation for Inter from just outside the area.
Inter talisman Ibrahimovic started on the bench with his side already through as the Italian champions and Werder, without the suspended Diego, lacked creativity in the first half.
Wingers Mancini and Ricardo Quaresma again underperformed for the visitors, who lost 1-0 at home to Panathinaikos in their previous group game.
Pizarro had two other good chances for the hosts, already out of contention for Champions League progression before the game.
it seem mourinho isnt doing such a fantastic job at inter afterall.
i check his teamsheets. it isnt such a understrength side with stars name all over his lineup.
| 1 Tim Wiese | 12 Julio César |
| 15 Sebastian Prödl | 23 Marco Materazzi |
| 29 Per Mertesacker | 2 Ivan Cordoba |
| 22 Torsten Frings | 16 Nicolas Burdisso |
| 2 Sebastian Boenisch | 13 Maicon |
| 8 Clemens Fritz | 19 Esteban Cambiasso |
| 11 Mesut Özil | 20 Sulley Muntar |
| 14 Aaron Hunt | 4 Javier Zanetti |
| 7 Jurica Vranjes | 77 Ricardo Quaresma |
| 24 Claudio Pizarro | 10 Adriano |
| 9 Markus Rosenberg | 33 Alessandro Mancini |
| Substitutes | |
| 6 Frank Baumann | Zlatan Ibrahimovic 8 |
| 33 Christian Vander | Mario Balotelli 45 |
| 5 Dusko Tosic | Luis Figo 7 |
| 25 Peter Niemeyer | Davide Santon 39 |
| 3 Petri Pasanen | Maxwell 6 |
| 20 Daniel Jensen | Paolo Orlandoni 22 |
| 17 Said Huseinovic | Luis Jimenez 11 |
| Substitutions | |
| Peter Niemeyer for Jurica Vranjes (89) |
Maxwell for Marco Materazzi (45) |
| Daniel Jensen for Mesut Özil (90) |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Adriano (45) |
| Mario Balotelli for Sulley Muntar (71) |
|
| Yellow Cards | |
| Torsten Frings (28) |
Sulley Muntar (69) |
| Clemens Fritz (84) |
Mario Balotelli (88) |
| · Club Squads: Werder Bremen | Internazionale | |
Ricardo Quaresma is seen as a flop signing... He just won the dustbin award or something succeeding Adriano... lol
Pizza boy delivers... Now Inter gets drawn against Barce or Pool would be cool... Ah ben and Jose at it again... lol
what's important at this stage is inter have qualified for the knockout stage and are also leading the serie A a favourable margin.
mancini won the seria A and got the boot because partly he fail in the champion league.
Base on such form from Inter, i dont think they can go far in the champion league.
barca and liverpool are my favourites to win this year.
ahahaha pwned by pizzaro =D
Originally posted by dragg:barca and liverpool are my favourites to win this year.
barca maybe.
but for liverpool, althought im a fan of it, but i don think will win.
Originally posted by limpper:barca maybe.
but for liverpool, althought im a fan of it, but i don think will win.
agree
he should be staying with chelsea..