Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk both reached their first UEFA Cup final with narrow victories Thursday. Werder rallied to beat Hamburger SV 3-2 in the second leg of their all-German semifinal Thursday and went through on the away goals rule, with the aggregate score 3-3 after Hamburg's 1-0 win in Bremen one week ago. Shakhtar edged Dynamo Kiev 2-1 in the second leg of their all-Ukrainian matchup to advance 3-2 on aggregate. Brazilian midfielder Ilsinho scored the winner late in the game. The final is May 20 in Istanbul, Turkey, and both Werder and Shakhtar made the title game for the first time. In a fast-paced game in Hamburg, Ivica Olic scored for the home team in the 13th minute, but Diego tied the game in the 29th. Claudio Pizarro scored in the 66th for a 2-1 Werder lead, Frank Baumann made it 3-1 in the 83rd, before Olic scored his second in the 87th to send the game into a thrilling finish. Werder held off Hamburg's desperate late attempts to make its second final of the season. Werder also eliminated Hamburg in the semifinals of the German Cup. “I think I have to congratulate both teams for a very good game,” Werder coach Thomas Schaaf said. “But I think my team deserved to advance, we were able to come back, we had confidence and we pushed forward.” In the final, Werder will be without playmaker Diego and striker Hugo Almeida, who both picked up yellow cards that rule them out. “We kept faith until the end and fought until the final whistle,” Pizarro said. In Donetsk, Brazilian midfielder Ilsinho scored the winner with one minute left in regulation. He collected a long ball on the right, cut inside the box while faking two Dynamo players, Badr El Kaddouri and Ayila Yussuf, and shot the ball inside the far post. Shakhtar took the lead on Jadson's shot from 13 meters in the 17th minute after defender Betao failed to control Darijo Srna's cross into the box from the right. Guinean striker Ismael Bangoura equalized two minutes into the second half, breaking through two defenders to shoot into the lower left corner. “It was a real and tough cup match of the highest level,” Shakhtar's Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu said. “There was enough show and real struggle in the match from the players on both sides.” Lucescu said he had considered substituting a tired Isinho, but that he “had a feeling” the Brazilian would decide the match and left him on the field. Dynamo staged dangerous counterattacks and had Ognjen Vukojevic's strike from Oleksandr Aliyev's free kick disallowed for offside in the 40th.
