One could see from the celebrations by veteran Torsten Frings exactly how much good this match does for the whole team. With this arms rowing around wildly, Frings leapt twice after the final whistle and jumped around with his team-mates. Werder had not only conquered their first hurdle but had been masterful in doing so.

"Of course we are happy to have reached the quarter-finals. But we are also happy that we advanced with such a solid team performance," praised the German international. "After falling behind 1-0, we showed that we never give up. And in the end we didn't let the game slip out of our hands. We learned from the mistakes of the first half of the season. Too often we were left empty-handed after playing good matches."

Frings's comment was the message of the night. Just as they had hoped, the Green-Whites once again took steps forward, after having improved in each test match of the winter break. "I always said we only subjectively had poor preparations. But the fact is that we worked very hard and talked a lot. We did a lot for the togetherness which we showed on the pitch tonight. And we have to continue that," said the visibly satisfied Per Mertesacker.

The team bosses also see the team on a positive way. "The result of course makes us happy, but also the manner in which we played. That was after all Borussia Dortmund in this amazing atmosphere and with a very strong team. For the first game after the winter break, that was more than orderly. Everyone should recognise today that we can play better than in the first half. And we showed that," said manager Klaus Allofs.