Ketsbaia rues late Anorthosis 'mistakes'

Anorthosis Famagusta FC were 18 minutes from the UEFA Champions League first knockout round before two Werder Bremen goals sealed a draw which leaves the Cypriot side needing to win at Panathinaikos FC in a fortnight to go through from Group B, to the frustration of Temuri Ketsbaia. If Panathinaikos lose, Bremen can pip them to the UEFA Cup by beating FC Internazionale Milano but the German side cannot continue in this competition and their coach Thomas Schaaf reflected on the campaign's lessons.

Temuri Ketsbaia, Anorthosis coach
We're disappointed because we were winning 2-0 and couldn't hold on. We made no mistakes until we conceded the goal, then we made mistakes and at this level you are punished. We could even have lost the game but at 2-2 we had a good chance to score. The players made a huge effort, not only today, but in all of the games. If we want to achieve something we have to go to Athens and get a result. Of course the game is not easy but none of the games were easy for us. What is left is to continue; we need to relax and calm down. The players are disappointed with the result but that's football. We made Europe talk about our team and the lads deserve congratulations.

Thomas Schaaf, Bremen coach
Maybe we were lacking a little bit of will and courage. We knew the game would be difficult from the beginning. We tried to find space and use it, but only managed to do that in the last 20 minutes. Then we played well, and got the draw. Naturally we are greatly disappointed, because our target was to qualify. Today we had a chance to achieve this target but we didn't exploit it. We had a chance to have a very nice finale against Inter but now it will be a game to decide whether we will continue in the UEFA Cup.

You cannot take the Champions League and say: "These elements were good and others were not." One must take the season as a whole. In the first game [against Anorthosis] we played well and had good elements. Today we also had good elements but maybe we didn't have what was expected of us. But one should see the season as a whole, and our performance must improve. The basic thing is to see what we did this year. We set goals and didn't achieve them. We need to see how we can work and improve. We played in the Champions League, which is good, but didn't go through, which isn't good. We need to see how to improve and get better.