Freiburg continues to dream of the cup
Union humiliates unsettled Hertha
01/19/2022, 11:19 p.m
1. FC Union Berlin remains the top club in the capital. In the DFB Cup, the Köpenicker city rivals Hertha BSC skilfully finish off. Meanwhile, thanks to art shooter Grifo, Freiburg can continue to dream of the final. The Breisgauers managed a made-to-measure victory against Hoffenheim.
1. FC Union has impressively demonstrated the new balance of power in Berlin football. With a 3-2 (1-0) win at Hertha BSC, the Irons made it back to the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup after two years and humiliated their local rivals, who had been left behind in sport, in their Olympic Stadium. Two months after the sovereign 2-0 in the Bundesliga duel, the team of successful coach Urs Fischer was superior in terms of play and tactics in the capital derby in the evening. Hertha braced themselves against the defeat, but showed frightening defensive weaknesses.
Andreas Voglsammer (11th minute) with an artistic side kick, Niklas Stark with an own goal (50th) and Robin Knoche (55th) scored for the cup finalists from 2001, who even had good chances after their first away derby win in eleven years can count on a return to the Olympic Stadium for the final on May 21st. Suat Serdar scored twice for Hertha (54′, 90′ + 4′). Coach Tayfun Korkut has to continue the tough development work of an insecure team – on Sunday in the home game of the Bundesliga against FC Bayern Munich.
Hertha in distress after a few seconds
And the shame for the club from Charlottenburg was indicated after just a few seconds. Less than ten seconds were played when Max Kruse checked Alexander Schwolow. Less than a minute was played before the Hertha keeper had to save against Voglsammer. Bite, passion – the Iron brought the Derby virtues directly to the newly laid lawn, none of it initially with the host.
The leadership of the Unioner was only the logical consequence of the initially significant performance difference between the capital rivals. From his own half, Dominique Heintz hit the ball on the left to Kruse. The 33-year-old creative spirit of the guests crossed in the middle, actually a bit too far for Voglsammer. But he used the cross in the air.
Goals then fell in a rapid opening phase of the second half. First, Vladimir Darida missed a huge chance for Hertha from close range. Then it happened in quick succession: Stark pushed the ball into his own goal for the second Union goal, Serdar scored from an acute angle to score the goal for Hertha. But the problem remained, the will alone was not enough for the Korkut team. Knoche exploited the massive defensive weaknesses with a billiard goal, Union had never scored three goals in a derby against Hertha.
Grifo decides Baden-Württemberg duel
Meanwhile, marksman Vincenzo Grifo shot TSG 1899 Hoffenheim out of the DFB Cup and made SC Freiburg dream of winning their first national title. The 28-year-old Italian scored two goals (10th minute/36th/hand penalty) in the 4-1 (2-0) round of 16 and thus decided the Baden-Württemberg duel in favor of the Breisgauer early on. In front of only 500 allowed spectators, TSG only briefly hoped for an own goal by returnee Nico Schlotterbeck (53rd). Kevin Schade (55th) and Ermedin Demirovic (67th) scored the final score. A late second goal by Hoffenheim by Ihlas Bebou was disallowed for offside.
At Hoffenheim, the experiment of leaving striker Andrej Kramaric on the bench failed. The Kraichgauers, who are otherwise so offensively strong, seemed harmless and hardly created any chances. The sports club, which also benefited from the return of goalkeeper Mark Flekken and Schlotterbeck in the important victory, now has a great opportunity to win something in the cup, which was severely decimated after the elimination of Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen.
TSG fans want Kramaric to come on
In a game that was fast-paced from the start, Italian national player Grifo set the first exclamation mark. He completed a clean counterattack by the guests with a remarkable flick. TSG was much too slow in moving backwards. Things got emotional after a good half hour when TSG coach Sebastian Hoeneß had a heated argument with Freiburg’s pros after a foul.
They could celebrate a few moments after Schlotterbeck shot Hoffenheim’s outstretched arm Bebou – referee Robert Schröder decided on a penalty, which in turn Grifo safely converted. So the preliminary decision was made before the break. The ripped off Grifo symbolized the extremely efficient people of Freiburg. The few Hoffenheim fans called out loudly for Kramaric to be substituted quickly. The Croatian and striker Dabbur then came into play after the break, with Hoeneß correcting his original line-up. That helped for a while.
Kramaric was directly involved in several scenes: he also played a key role in initiating Schlotterbeck’s own goal, which wanted to clear the ball from the line. But the joy about the goal didn’t last long, almost in return, Schade scored to make it 3-1 and thus restored the old gap. Demirovic’s goal finally brought the decision.