Werder Bremen went down 2:1 (0:0) in their final friendly in Turkey 1:2 against Fenerbahce Istanbul thanks to a last minute header by Nicolas Anelka. Werder had taken the lead through Nelson Valdez (65') but had theat cancelled out by Tugay (84').

Werder made the brighter start in the battle of the goal machine in Europe and had two chances to take an early lead. After just four minutes, Torsten Frings sent Patrick Owomoyela on his way in the Turkish penalty area but his attempted square ball was intercepted by Serkan to deny Miroslav Klose who was shaping up to shoot. Micoud took the resulting corner and landed the ball on Klose's head but the Fenerbahce keeper Rüstü was able to turn the ball away. The first twenty minutes went clearly to the German side who put ther opponents under pressure by attacking early. Just on the twenty minute mark Klose was involved again, putting Frings through but again Rüstü was equal to the shot. Just a minute later, Ivan Klasnic flashed a shot wide of the right post.

Wiese's super save denies Tuncay

The Christoph Daum's side began to gain the upper hand and create some openings. Tim Wiese in the Werder goal was first tested by a header from Marcio Nobre after an Alex corner. Tuncay could only slice the rebound wide. Tuncay and Wiese were face to face again soon after. Alex set the number 10 on his way but Tim Wiese came rushing from his goal to pluck the ball from the strikers feet (27'). The 24 yeat old keeper needed the aide of Frank Fahrenhorst to stop the Turks taking the lead with their next effort. Anelka took on a long pass and rounded the Werder keeper but Fahrenhorst had tracked back and was able to clear the danger. Fenerbahce broke through the Werder defence all too often with the midfield lacking invention. Only Johan Micoud managed to show his ability as he came close with a long distance drive in the 36th minute.

Valdez replaces injured Klose

With Nelson Valdez having to replace the injured Miroslav Klose on the half hour, trainer Thomas Schaaf also made changes for the second half. Daniel Jensen relieved Torsten Frings and Jelle van Damme came on for Christian Schulz. After ten more minutes Finn Petri Pasanen took the place of Naldo at the centre of defence. It took until almost the hour mark before the capacity 3,000 crowd at the Topkapi sport complex in Antalya saw the next goal chance. Daniel Jensen gathered the ball after some cool combination play between Ivan Klasnic and Nelson Valdez, but the Dane couldn't keep his shot on target. Jurica Vranjes also failed to impress in front of goal when he totally mis-kicked a cross from Klasnic (61').

At the other end, Serkan set Anelka through but Tim Wiese narrowed the angles cleverly. Then, in the 65th minute, the Green-Whites took an almost surprisingly lead. Jurica Vranje fed Nelson Valdez who dropped a shoulder to fox his marker and drove his shot from twenty meters into the bottom left corner. Until the 84th minute it looked as if Werder had gotten revenge for last seasons 4:1 friendly defeat but all that was to change. Serkan opened up the field with a pass to Tuncay who skipped past Owomoyela and Wiese to give the Turkish side getting a deserved equaliser. That wasn't the end of it though, In the third minute of added time Tim Wiese ahd to turn a Marcio Nobre effort away for a corner, from that , the Werder keeper could then do nothing about Anelka's header - 2:1.

It was a bitter end for Werder in an interesting friendly which will give Werder hope going into the second half of the season.