Ahead of the second leg in Barcelona, we have to go to Frankfurt where we lose 3-2. We play our rearranged game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Tuesday, 8 March 1988 and win 2-1 thanks to two goals from Tita. Friday evening brings the derby against FC Köln in front of a full house at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Sold out in this case means 14,000 spectators. It's a really great game with numerous goalmouth incidents, spicy challenges, lots of tempo and commitment. Both sides are satisfied with a 1-1 draw in the end. The Werkself fly out to Barcelona in good spirits.
The second leg of the quarter-final at the Nou Camp stadium on Wednesday 16 March kicks off at 21.15 CET. There are only 20,000 spectators at the ground and the travelling 2,000 Bayer 04 fans can make themselves heard in their seats on the top tier.
The Werkself show their UEFA Cup face from the first minute. Full concentration, aggressive in challenges and enjoying the game, Bayer 04 take control and create one or two minor chances without giving any away. Barcelona consider themselves safe and patiently wait for their chances, which come after the restart. But Herbert Waas sets Christian Schreier off down the right flank on 59 minutes with a diagonal ball. He takes it into the penalty area and the Barcelona keeper Zubizarreta blocks his path with a foul. Everybody's waiting for the whistle – and in comes the Brazilian Tita to fire the ball into the back of the net. 1-0 to the Werkself. The last 30 minutes bring full-blown attacks from the Spaniards but little is produced except for a slight chance for Bernd Schuster from a tight angle and a header from Carrasco from the free kick. Substitute Falko Götz then fouls Carrasco on 85 minutes. Bernd Schuster misses the penalty and the Bayer team battle through to a deserved 1-0 win at the Camp Nou. The team spend the night in Barcelona at the hotel – with beer and cigars. The next game is on Saturday but you don't often beat Barcelona and go through to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. The skipper Wolfgang Rolff does sound a warning: "The feeling’s great, of course. But we still have a huge amount of work in front of us. There’s time to celebrate later." How right he proved to be.
We head home the next morning. The next opponents in the Bundesliga are Werder, in Bremen. So not an easy game for us and as it turns out: a dress rehearsal for the UEFA Cup semi-final. Bayer 04 have the most unfavourable draw possible: Werder Bremen and at home first. The excitement in both camps is limited. But everybody is enthusiastic about the Bundesliga match. With renewed confidence from the Barcelona game, the Werkself establish a 2-0 lead in the first half. Christian Schreier nets a brace. But the Weser Stadium is a cauldron in the second half. Attack after attack on the Bayer 04 goal. Karl-Heinz Riedle pulls a goal back to make it 2-1 on the hour mark and the pressure grows more and more. Manfred Burgsmüller levels on 86 minutes and Werder make it 3-2 three minutes later – again through Riedle. In a rage, Erich Ribbeck leaves the bench and disappears into the dressing room. Bayer 04 have a free kick on the right in added time some 30 yards from the Bremen goal. Tita hammers the ball into the net for the final score of 3-3. Huge joy for the Werkself. Ribbeck gives a curt response after the game: "I knew Tita would put one away so why should I watch it." His anger at giving away the 2-0 lead has not subsided but the team noticed that there would be chances against Werder Bremen, the German champions to be, in the two UEFA Cup semi-final games.
Three days later, on 22 March 1988, we beat Schalke 04 3-2 after being 2-1 down at half-time on a Tuesday night. We besiege the Schalke penalty area in the second half and earn a deserved clear win with goals from Klaus Täuber and Erich Seckler. The Werkself are seventh with 25 points, two points behind sixth place. Next up is Hannover 96 with the newly promoted team battling against relegation. We definitely want to get a result. Instead we have the biggest Bayer 04 defeat in the Bundesliga. Hannover are flying and every shot is a goal. We end up losing 6-1. The Werkself experience their Waterloo in the final match ahead of the first leg in the UEFA Cup against Werder Bremen on 6 April.
