Greek hero Charisteas the man for the big occasion

Greek striker Angelos Charisteas celebrates after scoring a goal during the Euro 2004 final. Charisteas seems to love playing football on the big stage, with his late strike for Werder Bremen securing a sensational 2-1 Champions League win over ten-man Valencia.

Greek international Angelos Charisteas seems to love playing football on the big stage, with his late strike for Werder Bremen securing a sensational 2-1 Champions League win over ten-man Valencia.

Charisteas, 24, had only been on the pitch for 23 minutes after replacing Christian Schulz, but the marksman latched onto Ivan Klsanic's pass to slot home in the 84th minute and hand the German champions a vital three points.

"Fourth choice Charisteas scores the winner against Valencia," headlined German daily Bild. "He started on the bench but then helped Bremen to a famous Champions League win."

"Schaaf's supersub Charisteas has the final say," exclaimed Kicker magazine.

German international Miroslav Klose struck on the hour mark to cancel out Valencia's second minute opener through Spanish international Vicente before Charisteas reminded the football public of his goalscoring talents.

It has been a mixed time for Charisteas, who scored the winning goal for Greece in their 1-0 Euro 2004 final victory over Portugal, but still cannot force his way into the Bremen starting line-up.

Bremen paid three million euros, a club record at the time, to lure Charisteas to the Weserstadion from Aris Saloniki in June 2002, but after a promising start he dropped down the pecking order and scored just four goals last season.

After Greece's shock Euro 2004 win Charisteas may have thought he would have more first team action at Werder but Klose, Craoat Klasnic and Paraguayan international Nelson Haedo Valdez are all preferred by manager Thomas Schaaf.

The Greek icon refused to discuss his lack of first team action after the match preferring to concentrate on a result that gives Bremen a good chance of reaching the knockout stage of Europe's premier competition.

"We are delighted to win our first match in the Champions League," said Charisteas. "We showed our quality in the second half and played some really attacking football."

That statement was backed up by Bremen chief Schaaf who was delighted to take the scalp of two-time Champions League runners-up Valencia.

"Valencia are a very good team and to beat them is some achievement," beamed Schaaf. "We can build on this now."

Schaaf certainly has a selection headache ahead in attack with Klose scoring four goals in his last two matches while Valdez, Charisteas and Klasnic are all showing strong early season form.

Bayern Munich, 4-0 conquerors of Ajax in their midweek Champions League encounter, are Bremen's next opponents in a mouthwatering Bundesliga tussle.