Werder Bremen and Dinamo Zagreb meet in the Champions League 3rd qualifying round, with both teams aiming to make it through to the lucrative group stage.

The draw could have been kinder to Werder, who face a stiff challenge from their Croatian counterparts.  The Bundesliga side face a team who are unbeaten in their last 34 matches, and who won their domestic league by a massive 20 points last season.  This season they have scored 16 goals and conceded just 2 in their opening four league games.

The Croatian champions comfortably came through the first two qualification rounds against minor sides Lenkoran and Domžale and will be looking to upset their German opponents and make a return to the group stage after an absence of eight years.

They have been weakened by the summer departures of Eduardo da Silva to Arsenal and key defender Vedran Ćorluka to Manchester City, but the return of two experienced attackers has given them a boost.  Bosko Balaban has returned from Bruges, while Thomas Sokota has returned to the club from FC Porto.

Dinamo will be looking to proceed one stage further than last year, when they were eliminated by Arsenal at this 3rd round stage.  Werder were unlucky not proceed from the group stages after being drawn in Group A along with Barcelona and Chelsea.  Only a victory by Barca in the final group match prevented Werder from advancing to the knock-out stages.

They then joined the UEFA Cup competition and went all the way to the Semi-finals, before losing to Espanyol.

Assistant coach Rajko Magić was in Germany at the weekend to watch Bremen open their Bundesliga season with a 2-2 draw away to Bochum.

“Werder is an extremely disciplined team which keeps its tactical formation to the maximum throughout the whole game” he reported.  “After this game I can only conclude that Werder are still the favourites.”

Favourites they may be, but Werder manager Klaus Allofs has urged his players to take their opponents seriously.  “I expect us to show heart, enthusiasm, and passion” he said.

“Our players have enough experience.  We must have a fighting spirit and determination on the night.  Above all the team must not allow a lead to be squandered as in Bochum.  We have to be clever” the 50 year old urged.

“Of course, I would feel better if we had Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski there.  But the others will have to show their strengths to get the job done.”

TEAM NEWS

Werder Bremen:

Werder have two major absences for the tie.  Torsten Frings is out for months with knee ligament damage and is a major loss for the German side.  He has been joined on the sidelines by fellow midfielder Tim Borowski. 

Patrick Owomoyela is another long-term absentee, while Clemens Fritz looks set to miss out with a stomach muscle injury.  New signing Dusko Tosic is again unavailable, and with Pierre Wome also out injured, Thomas Schaaf has a real problem at left-back.  Peter Niemeyer looks set to fill in.

New record Brazilian signing Carlos Alberto may return to make his competitive debut for Werder.  He certainly has plenty of Champions League experience having won the trophy with Porto in 2004. Thomas Schaaf has a decision to make as to whether youngster Kevin Schindler comes into the front line to replace the under-performing Markus Rosenberg.

Probable Line-Ups: Wiese, Niemeyer, Mertesacker, Naldo, Schulz, Baumann, Carlos Alberto, Jensen, Diego, Sanogo, Schindler

Dinamo Zagreb:

Former Hannover coach Branko Ivanković has a near full-strength squad to choose from. 

Probable Line-Ups: Koch, Mikic, Drpić, Schildenfeld, Pokrivać, Vukojević, Vrdoljak, Modrić, Sammir, Balaban, Sokota  

PREDICTION

Dinamo are certainly in confident mood and have a number of quality attacking players such as Modrić.  Werder should win the game, but the danger is Zagreb scoring an away goal.  This will make the return leg at the daunting Maksimir Stadium in two weeks all the more problematic.

Werder Bremen 2 Dinamo Zagreb 1