Thursday October 21, 2021
Incidents around defeat
Unions European Cup evening to forget
Bitter trip to the Netherlands: After the hooligan attack, Union Berlin loses in the Conference League at Feyenoord Rotterdam unhappy and is under pressure. The game is overshadowed by an admission debacle with injured people.
Hooligan attack, injured fans and a defeat: Union Berlin has experienced a European Cup trip to forget. Urs Fischer’s team lost 3-1 (2-1) in the Conference League at Feyenoord Rotterdam and is under enormous pressure with two defeats from three games in Group E.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh (11th), Bryan Linssen (29th) and Luis Sinisterra (76th) shook the infamous “De Kuip” stadium and gave the league leaders with seven points a brilliant starting position for the second leg in 14 days in the old one Forestry. For Union, which had recently won four times in a row, Taiwo Awoniyi (35th) only made it to the interim connection goal.
The game was overshadowed by several incidents outside the stadium. The Union delegation around President Dirk Zingler had been attacked by hooligans the evening before in a bar near the team hotel. Feyenoord apologized to Union a day later for the “cowardly act”.
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At the entrance there were also massive problems for hundreds of Union fans. “There was an extremely tough police operation with several injured,” said press spokesman Christian Arbeit. The “Eiserne Hilfe” chairman, Andreas Lattemann, reported on “targeted attacks on the heads of those involved” and the “use of batons and dogs. Several people were bitten, have lacerations or are in the hospital.”
Rotterdam meanwhile took a 2-0 lead with the first two scoring chances. Jahanbakhsh just had to push in after great preparatory work by Sinisterra, who made Paul Jaeckel look very old on the left. After just under half an hour, Robin Knoche completely misjudged himself, center forward Linssen thanked him and struck cold.
The Eiserne remained harmless offensively in the first half, but came back into play through the header from Awoniyi after a cross from captain Christopher Trimmel. After the break, Union tried hard, but the guests seemed powerless for a large part and were too imprecise in their own possession. Substitute Sheraldo Becker (72nd) had the equalizer on the foot before the strong Sinisterra hit on the other side.