UEFA Champions League: Werder Bremen, Braga Wednesday Winners

Giampualo Pazzini scored in the first half to give Sampdoria a 1-0 lead at the Weser Stadium only to have the linesman deny the goal. Flag raised, the Italian international had been judged offside - a fair call, though Pazzini would ultimately get a measure of redemption after a trying day for Italy’s fourth-place finishers.

Though Sampdoria had taken their hosts into half-time drawn nil-nil, a beautiful curler from Clemens Fritz, a penalty converted by Torsten Frings, and a Claudio Pizarro’s finish to a beautiful movement had the German club up 3-0 through regulation time. With Sampdoria having played a man down since before Frings’ goal, the tie looked nearly settled. A three goal advantage without having allowed an away goal would be difficult to give-back in Genoa.

No Italian team has ever won at the Weser Stadium, a fact that, until yesterday, made Werder Bremen a favorite ahead of today’s match with Sampdoria. Then, Werder sold their best player.

Mesut Özil had one year left on his contract and had made it clear he was going to move. Though the €15 million the club got for him is far below what you’d expect for a player of his age and caliber, the market was deflated by the expiring contract and Özil’s stated intent to join Real Madrid. Those were factors in a the simple equation for Werder: Is one year of Mesut Özil worth €15 million? They said no and allowed their playmaker to move-on.

For the embarrassment that was falling behind 3-0 within 28 minutes, Tottenham Hotspur were able to salvage a manageable result Tuesday in Bern against Young Boys.

The Swiss runners-up staked goals from Senad Lulic, Henri Bienvenu and Xavier Hochstrasser to the shock lead before Harry Redknapp adjusted, bringing-on Tom Huddlestone and moving Gareth Bale to left back, taking-off Benoit Assou-Ekotto in an attempt to plug the gaps in the defense’s left-side. Spurs would hold for the rest of the match and get goals from Sebastien Bassong (just before half) and Roman Pavlyuchenko (late) to finish their 3-2 reclamation.

It’s the play-off round of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League. Twenty teams are paired-off to engage in ten, two-legged ties to decide the last spots in this year’s group stage. Today, five of those matches kick-off their first legs, with return legs next Tuesday. Tomorrow, five more matches, including Italy’s Sampdoria visiting Germany’s Werder Bremen.

All amtches start at 2:45 p.m. Eastern with the exception of the match in St. Petersburg, which starts at 12:30 p.m.