Bundesliga
Pizarro eyeing Europe after doing Bremen and Bayern a favour
Claudio Pizarro knows what it is like to win the Bundesliga title, having succeeded six times with Bayern Munich, and he may well just have won it for his former club once again, from afar.
The 40-year-old's late equaliser for Werder Bremen in their 2-2 draw with Borussia Dortmund has handed Bayern a seventh straight Bundesliga title on a plate. In one hammer blow, Pizarro has done a huge favour to the two Bundesliga clubs whose fortunes he has defined over almost two decades.
Bayern celebrated his goal by taking a four-point advantage over Dortmund into the final two games of the season, while Bremen needed the point to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for Europe next season – something Pizarro says they must continue to believe in.
"That's my job," Pizarro told bundesliga.com. "When I came in, I tried to get the crowd with us and the players to get a bit more excited. We tried to win the game until the end. Sadly we couldn't do it.
"It will be tough, but we are going to fight for the goal of qualifying for the Europa League."
Thanks to the Peruvian's fourth goal of the season, Bremen now head into their final fixtures of the season at Hoffenheim next Saturday and at home to RB Leipzig on 18 May knowing that two wins could secure them a place in the UEFA Europa League next term.
A win and a draw may also suffice and the fact they still have this glimmer of hope is thanks to Pizarro's 75th-minute equaliser which ensured messages of thanks and congratulations also arrived from Munich.
One call Pizarro is keener to receive is from Bremen's bosses, offering him a contract for next season. With his 196th Bundesliga goal, he is now agonisingly close to two centuries of goals in Germany's top flight, and a repeat of his haul this season – all scored in just 628 minutes on the field, as he became the Bundesliga's second most prolific super-sub with his 20th from the bench, one fewer than Freiburg's Nils Petersen's record – would enable him to reach another milestone in a remarkable career.
Whether he will also get the opportunity to play in the Europa League with Bremen next season will be determined over the next few weeks, with Pizarro telling Sky: "I want to carry on playing – I'll talk to the club in the coming weeks and we'll see where things go from there."
Dortmund, on the other hand, would probably be happy to the see the back of him. Pizarro has helped smash two of their dreams this season, scoring twice in the DFB Cup tie between the two sides – once to make it 2-2, and then again in the ensuing penalty shoot-out which Bremen won – and now seriously denting their league title aspirations by taking two points off the Westphalians.