After a cracking pair of semifinal deciders, the UEFA Cup Final card is complete with Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen set to duke it out on May 20th in Istanbul. Each will be a first time finalist in the last edition of the tourney, though Bremen did win a Cup Winners Cup back in 1992.
Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Dinamo Kyiv 1 (Shakhtar advances 3-2)
Hamburg 2 Werder Bremen 3 (3-3 aggregate, Bremen advances on away goals)
Now that I've posted the clips, Sean has a pair of verbal thumbs up for the all-Bundesliga clash:
No question for me that Werder Bremen's 3-2 win at Hamburg tonight was the most exciting game of the week, with literally a piece of paper separating the teams.
The second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final swung to and fro after Ivica Olić chipped Hamburg into a 2-0 aggregate lead in the 13th minute. Martin Jol's men looked all set to power to victory in front of their home fans before Werder leveled through their livewire Brazilian, the Juventus-bound Diego, just short of the half hour.
Being the Nord Derby, the clash was full of needle, tension which exploded when the on-fire Diego squared up to countryman Alex shortly before the break and the referee flashed yellow, ruling him out of the final .
Hamburg sought to turn the screw in the second half but Claudio Pizarro fired Werder ahead on away goals with a 66th minute Exocet.
With seven minutes left, Hamburg right-back Michael Gravgaard succumbed to outrageous fortune when the ball spun off a scrunched-up piece of paper lying on the grass as he attempted a back-pass, forcing him to mis-kick and gift Werder a corner instead.
The Green-and-Whites' captain Frank Baumann stooped at the far post to send Werder 3-1 up on the night. Olić's second of the night in the 87th minute was not enough to stop their Hanseatic rivals advancing on away goals to the final.
- Greg Seltzer & Sean O'Conor
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