New Dawn:

A fifteen minute hat-trick from substitute Zoltán Gera turned the match on its head and proved that Fulham could still mix it with top European teams. The Hungarian attacking midfielder replaced Fulham’s best player for the first hour, the American Clint Dempsey. Fifteen minutes later a 1-0 half time deficit had been turned into a 4-1 lead. “It’s always a good thing to score three goals against a very, very good team like Werder Bremen, so I’m very happy,” said Gera. “I’m happy for scoring goals and I want to keep going.”

It was a strange match. The Peruvian international Claudio Pizarro’s long range effort was the first on target. It was no great test but within five minutes Hugo Almeida breached the Cottagers’ defence to draw the best from the Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer from 10 yards out. But a goal was coming.

Thomas Schaaf’s teams like to play pretty attacking football, but Fulham’s new manager Mark Hughes will be concerned by the ease with which the Germans, who benched rising stars Mesut Özil and Marko Marin, carved them open for the first goal. In the 14th minute Petri Pasanen, who failed to impress in English football six years ago, found space to cross. Fulham failed to heed the Pizarro message leaving the Peruvian unmarked on the far post who gave Schwarzer no chance.

Seasoned European campaigners Werder Bremen, stroked the ball around at leisure ahead of their Champion’s League eliminator against Sampdoria. Dempsey went closest for Fulham with a shot that deflected for a corner and a glancing header from Zamora’s cross. Meanwhile, Pizarro had another chance and Schwarzer’s blushes were spared when he rushed out of his area only to be beaten to the ball by Almeida whose delightful side-footed flick over the diving keeper deserved better than rebound to safety off the post.

The Germans were by far the better side in the first half, but the theatrics were annoying. Tim Borowski was horribly late in a challenge on Dempsey, yet the German stayed down to the bemusement of the American. When Borowski got up he was given a talking to by referee Lee Probert. Shortly afterwards Torsten Frings threw himself to the ground theatrically after a totally legitimate barge by Dempsey. Probert rightly waved play on.

The Portuguese midfielder Almeida remained the most potent threat, but the Germans failed to add and would be made to pay in a second half demolition by Fulham. Dickson Etuhu, back from a disastrous World Cup campaign with Nigeria – a self inflicted disaster by the Nigerian FA – put Zamora through with just Tim Wiese to beat. His shot seemed like a cross that Dempsey could not quite stretch enough to meet. The Germans fully deserved their half time lead. It could – should – have been at least three.

Transformation:

While Werder lost ambition and interest in the second half whatever Hughes said in the interval worked wonders with his new charges. A refereeing mistake could have cost Fulham dear in a rare Werder attack. “I got the ball,” Fulham’s Ghanaian World Cup hero John Pantsil told Probert as Pasanen went down. Replays shows that Pantsil was right – he didn’t even touch his opponent. It was just a friendly and the mistake was not costly, but yet again it demonstrated how technology could help to ensure that decisions are correct.

Substitute Marko Arnautovic will need to either discover a shooting boot for his left foot or resign himself to life on the bench or a transfer to a lower level. His weak right foot effort was closer to a pass back to Schwarzer than a shot. It cost the Germans as Fulham – unrecognisable from their first half display – clawed their way back into the game. Left back Paul Konchesky pass found Dempsey mid-way into Werder’s half. The American’s deft lob released Zamora and the striker on the verge of an England call made no mistake for the equaliser.

New Gear:

Zoltán Gera is Fulham’s player of the season. He received a rapturous reception when he replaced Dempsey with just over an hour gone. Fulham bossed the opening twenty minutes of the second half. An exquisite pass by Murphy found Gera. The attacking midfielder turned and shot from at least 25 yards out. Wiese had no chance as it flew past him into the top left-corner of his goal. He soon proved he could do it with his head as Zamora found him in the penalty area for Fulham’s third.

Gera completed a fifteen minute hat-trick, although German keeper Tim Wiese will not want to see the replay. His contribution amounted to an assist for Gera. He rushed out of his goal and sliced his clearance to Gera who gratefully scored from nearly 30 yards out. “It was luck,” Gera modestly said of his hat-trick. “The first goal was left-footed. It was unstoppable goal and the second was a good cross from Bobby [Zamora] and the third I was in the right place at the right time.”

A superb performance by Gera was capped of by a magnificent defensive display. Rather than concede a corner he slid in and hook the ball into play before getting up and initiating an attack. Shortly afterwards he added an assist to his impressive tally for this match. Jonathan Greening’s pass found him in space to thread it into the path of Eddie Johnson who easily beat a despondent Wiese for the fifth. Gera could face team-mate Bobby Zamora at Wembley on Wednesday night.