Mission improbable for Ajax

AFC Ajax will be looking for a dose of UEFA Cup magic as they look to overturn a 3-0 deficit on home soil in the second leg of their Round of 32 tie against Werder Bremen.

• The dismissal of Olaf Lindenbergh midway through the first half at the Weserstadion allowed Bremen to seize the initiative in the tie, with Per Mertesacker, Naldo and Torsten Frings all scoring in the second half. "Anything is possible in football, but Bremen really have a very strong team," admitted Ajax defender Jaap Stam.

• Bremen qualified for the Round of 32 as the third-placed side in UEFA Champions League Group A. Ajax finished second in UEFA Cup Group F.

• Prior to the first leg, the two sides had never met in European competition.

• Bremen had been drawn against Dutch opposition on three previous occasions, losing all three ties and managing no wins and just two draws in six games. Last week's game marked Bremen's first win against Dutch opponents.

• Ajax had been drawn against German opposition on 13 previous occasions (winning 12 ties and losing one) as well as taking on FC Bayern München twice in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage. In total, their record against German opposition now reads won 18, drawn five lost five.

• The most prominent of those previous meetings saw Ajax beat VfB Leipzig 1-0 in the 1986/87 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final.

• Bremen's Finnish defender Petri Pasanen will be familiar to many of Ajax's players having won two titles and a Dutch Cup in four seasons in Amsterdam. He spent the latter part of the 2003/04 season on loan at English side Portsmouth FC before joining Bremen in the summer of 2004.

• Bremen's Danish midfielder Daniel Jensen has plenty of experience of Dutch football having played for Ajax's Eredivisie rivals SC Heerenveen between 1998 and 2003.

• German midfielder Peter Niemeyer, who joined Bremen from FC Twente on 16 January, earned his first professional contract with the Enschede club in 2002/03.

• Prior to the first leg, Ajax coach Henk Ten Cate had some recent experience of playing against Bremen. He was Frank Rijkaard's assistant at FC Barcelona when they met the German side in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage, winning 2-0 in Germany and 3-1 in Spain.

• The first-leg lineups were:
Ajax: Stekelenburg, Heitinga, Stam, Maduro, Donald (Perez 72), Sneijder, Lindenbergh, Gabri, Roger García, De Mul (Anita 26), Babel (Leonard 72).
Bremen: Wiese, Naldo, Wome (Schulz 74), Mertesacker, Vranješ, Fritz, Diego, Jensen, Frings (Pasanen 78), Klose, Hunt (Almeida 74).

• The aggregate winners will face FC Spartak Moskva or RC Celta de Vigo in the Round of 16, playing away on 8 March before staging the return a week later.