Inter have sights set on top spot in Bremen

FC Internazionale Milano may have secured qualification for the knockout stages but they will not be short on motivation when they visit SV Werder Bremen for their final Group A game.

• The UEFA Champions League holders booked their last-16 place by beating FC Twente last time out. However, they remain second behind Tottenham Hotspur FC, by virtue of their rivals' head-to-head superiority, and need to better the London club's result at Twente if they are to advance as group winners.

• Bremen's defeat at Spurs on Matchday 5 consigned them to last place, meaning that for the first time since 2004 there will be no European football after Christmas for the Bundesliga club.

Previous meetings
• This is the third season Inter and Bremen have met in the UEFA Champions League group stage. The first time came in 2004/05, Inter winning 2-0 at home through two Adriano goals then drawing 1-1 in Germany after Valérien Ismaël and Obafemi Martins swapped goals.

• At the Weserstadion on 24 November 2004, Petri Pasanen and Tim Borowski started for Bremen, Daniel Jensen appearing as a substitute. Esteban Cambiasso, Iván Córdoba, Dejan Stanković and Javier Zanetti  played for Inter.

• The clubs faced each other again in 2008/09 but this time Bremen held the upper hand. Claudio Pizarro cancelled out Maicon's goal in a 1-1 draw in Italy and the Peruvian scored again in Bremen's subsequent 2-1 home win with Markus Rosenberg and Zlatan Ibrahimović also on target.

• The lineups for that Bremen success on 9 December 2008 were:
Bremen: Wiese, Fritz, Mertesacker, Prödl, Boenisch, Vranjes (Niemeyer 89), Frings, Hunt, Özil (Jensen 90), Rosenberg, Pizarro.
Inter: Júlio César, Maicon, Materazzi (Maxwell 46), Córdoba, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Muntari (Balotelli 71), Burdisso, Mancini, Adriano (Ibrahimović 46), Quaresma.

Match background
• Bremen have never lost at home to Italian opposition, recording eight wins and six draws. They have beaten one Italian team at the Weserstadion already this season, defeating UC Sampdoria 3-1 in the first leg of their play-off tie through goals from Clemens Fritz, Torsten Frings (penalty) and Pizarro. They trailed 3-0 in the return until Rosenberg scored in stoppage time. Pizarro then struck in extra time to send Bremen through 5-4 on aggregate.

• Inter have a decent record on German soil, which reads W4 D7 L3. They lifted the European Champion Clubs' Cup last season after beating FC Bayern München in Madrid. The Nerazzurri lost the 1996/97 UEFA Cup final on penalties to FC Schalke 04 following a 1-1 aggregate draw.

Team ties
• Rafael Benítez bettered German opposition during his Liverpool FC side's triumphant UEFA Champions League campaign of 2004/05, overseeing 3-1 home and away wins against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the last 16.

• Pizarro struck for Bayern in a 2-0 group stage win at Inter on 27 September 2006.

• Alongside Pizarro in Bayern's team that night was Lucio, who spent nine seasons in the Bundesliga with Leverkusen and then Bayern where he played with Frings (2004/05) and Borowski (2008/09).

• Marko Arnautović spent last term on loan at Inter from Twente but played only three Serie A matches. Mikaël Silvestre spent 1998/99 with Inter, appearing 18 times in Serie A and scoring once. He also played six times in the UEFA Champions League.

• Samuel Eto'o played 65 minutes in FC Barcelona's 1-1 group stage draw at Bremen on 27 September 2006 and all of their 2-0 win there on 14 September 2005.

• Jensen came off the bench during Denmark's 2-1 defeat of Eto'o's Cameroon at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• Stanković helped Serbia earn a 1-0 win against a Germany side including Per Mertesacker and Marko Marin during the group stage in South Africa. Mertesacker's Germany won their next game at the finals against a Ghana outfit including Sulley Muntari.

• Cambiasso's saved spot kick sealed Argentina's shoot-out defeat by a Germany team featuring Mertesacker, Frings and Borowski in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals.

• Pasanen captained a Finland side beaten 2-1 by Wesley Sneijder's Netherlands in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier on 7 September.