Germany international striker Patrick Helmes has torn the cruciate ligament in his right knee and will be out of action for months, his club Bayer Leverkusen said on Saturday.

The 25-year-old injured his knee while on holiday and had surgery late on Friday, the club said.

Helmes, the club's top scorer with 21 goals in the season that just ended, will miss the start of the Bundesliga as well as his country's World Cup qualifiers in the late summer and autumn.

"He will be missing for much of the Bundesliga first round and for the crucial World Cup qualifiers of the national team," Leverkusen said on their website.

"This is a terrible blow for Patrick. We will surely miss him," said new Leverkusen coach Jupp Heynckes.


[Soccernet]

Bayer Leverkusen players and fans will have to wait until the end of the week before discovering whether Bruno Labbadia will still be in charge of their club next season.

The under-fire coach met with club management today to draw their end-of-season conclusions and his future is still hanging in the balance.

"We have spoken with some of the people concerned on Monday and Tuesday and have singled out the points which need to be worked on," said general manager Wolfgang Hauser after emerging from a meeting between himself, Labbadia and director of sport Rudi Voller.

"Any decision will be taken at the end of the season," he is reported as saying in the Bild newspaper.

Before the meeting, Holzhauser admitted the chances of Labbadia remaining were 50-50.

"The scales are finely balanced," he told the Cologne Stadtanzeiger newspaper. "Bruno Labbadia is and remains a very good coach. He works very meticulously, is very diligent and goes into detail with each player individually.

"He led us to the cup final, which is also worth something. But ninth place in the Bundesliga and the timing and style of some of his interviews go against him."


[Soccernet]

Werder Bremen lifted the DFB-Pokal and booked their place in the Europa League next season thanks to a narrow win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Mesut Ozil's deflected strike in the 58th minute was enough to win the game for a dominant Bremen side at Berlin's Olympiastadion.

Bremen had enough chances to win the game several times over against a lifeless Leverkusen, whose coach Bruno Labbadia goes into showdown talks with his club's board next week having failed to deliver the expected success this season.

Diego, playing his last game for Bremen before moving to Juventus next season, was given a very warm reception from the fans from northern Germany, who made up the majority inside the sold-out Olympiastadion.

He bowed to them having vowed to leave on a high note by winning the DFB-Pokal.

The early indications were promising for Bremen as Sebastian Prodl brought a decent save out of Rene Adler.

Torsten Frings' shot was then blocked by Manuel Friedrich when Claudio Pizarro unselfishly played the ball back to the Germany midfielder when perhaps he could have shot himself from inside the area.

Patrick Helmes had Leverkusen's best chance of the whole game in the 22nd minute when the ball fell at his feet just eight yards out from goal, but he completely mis-kicked with just Tim Wiese to beat.

All of the action was concentrated in front of Adler's goal and he was clearly feeling the pressure as he fumbled Naldo's 30-yard free-kick into the path of Frings, but Diego stole in from the side to take the shooting opportunity away from his team-mate.

Bremen may have wondered how they went into the break without scoring as Naldo's header was tipped over the bar by Adler on the stroke of half-time.

But Thomas Schaaf's men got the goal they were looking for, and thoroughly deserved, when Ozil's angled shot took a slight deflection off Friedrich to beat Adler at his near post in the 58th minute.

That goal proved to be enough to win the cup for Bremen.

Stefan Kiessling had the one and only chance to take the game to extra-time when he beat the offside trap in the 79th minute, but Prodl recovered to clear.


[Soccernet]

Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen head into the DFB-Pokal final today looking to salvage some pride from their otherwise disappointing seasons.

Both have failed to live up to their own expectations in the Bundesliga this season, finishing ninth and 10th respectively, and this has increased the pressure on their coaches.

Indeed, leading Leverkusen to DFB-Pokal glory may be the only thing which can keep Bruno Labbadia in his job.

After missing out on a place in Europe following a disappointing league campaign, Labbadia's future appears now to be hinging on whether or not his side can get the better of Bremen in Berlin.

But reading between the lines of Leverkusen's director of sport Rudi Voller's pre-match comments, defeat would not be so dramatic after he gave Labbadia his indirect backing by praising opponents Bremen for the patience they have shown with their coach Thomas Schaaf.

"Werder have been showing in an exemplary fashion for years how you deal with such crises," Voller said.

"Whenever there has been public criticism of Thomas Schaaf, then there has been 100% backing for the coach from the board.

"We are still convinced of Bruno's potential and we value the way in which Labbadia lets football be played."

Yet Leverkusen have veered from the sublime to the ridiculous this season, culminating in a 3-0 defeat on the final day of the season to struggling Energie Cottbus which has made the cup final even more important

Saturday's game may be the explanation for that slip-up last weekend since Labbadia says his players have been focused on this clash for months.

"The team is very excited," he said. "Everybody is looking forward to it.

"We have been working towards getting to Berlin from day one and spoke about how great an experience it would be even in (the first round at) Oberhausen.

"We are now here in Berlin and are incredibly excited."

Leverkusen got the better of Bremen in the Bundesliga with a win and a draw in their two meetings, but Schaaf hopes it will be a case of third time lucky for his side.

"It is going to be a tough task and I hope that we can do better this time than we did in the league," he said.

Brazilian playmaker Diego will be playing his final game for the club before moving to Juventus in the summer and he has promised to do all he can to leave with a piece of silverware.

"This is going to be the biggest game in my life so far," he said. "Winning the DFB-Pokal is my biggest dream."

Torsten Frings took a knock to his thigh in Thursday's training session, but he should be fit to play, leaving Schaaf without only his two long-term injury absentees, Per Mertesacker and Daniel Jensen.

Labbadia has a fully-fit squad to choose from.

When Werder Bremen take on Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup final on Saturday (1800 GMT), it will be their last chance to salvage a European spot from an otherwise hapless season.

The pre-season Bundesliga favourites, who ended up in 10th place after showing only occasional sparks of their brilliance, also missed out on European glory, losing in the UEFA Cup final to Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk last week.

With playmaker Diego joining Juventus at the end of the season, Werder are asking the Brazilian to put in one final breath-taking performance to win the cup.

Mercurial Diego has been sparkling when it really mattered, at time almost single-handedly guiding them further in their competitions.

His suspension from the UEFA Cup final was crucial, leaving Werder with no creative play in midfield and no trophy.

"This (German Cup) match is the most important one, not only during my time at Werder but the most important one of my life," Diego said.

"I am happy to be able to give something back to Werder for all their devotion. I am fully motivated for this."

Coach Thomas Schaaf, rumoured to be on his way out at the end of the season after 10 years, will have captain Frank Baumann and Sebastian Boenisch back in the squad as he bids to bring back the cup after Werder's last triumph in 2004.

BAYER COLLAPSE

Leverkusen coach Bruno Labbadia had also imagined his season differently after sitting in fifth place halfway through. But his young team's second round collapse, including eight defeats, saw them crash out of the European spots, finishing a disappointing ninth.

His job is now on the line, with defeat in the final seemingly sealing his fate after club officials called the season so far "unsatisfactory."

Leverkusen can play stunning, fast-paced football when two of the league's most dangerous strikers, Stefan Kiessling and Patrick Helmes, are in top form and Brazilian midfielder Renato Augusto orchestrates the attacks.

However, since their sensational 4-2 German Cup quarter-final win over Bayern Munich, Leverkusen have failed to replicate their good form, needing extra time to oust Mainz 05 4-1 in the last four.

Captain Simon Rolfes is fully fit to play in their third final appearance and Labbadia can only hope his strikers will be in the mood for goals to win their first German Cup since 1993.


[Reuters via Guardian]