Thursday, December 9th, 2021
Out in the Conference League
Union does not get ironed out bad dropouts
The European Cup adventure of 1. FC Union Berlin ends with the last day of the group stage. You have to win against Slavia Prague in order to hibernate in the Europa Conference League. But the mortgage of grave mistake is too great.
The European Cup adventure is over: Union Berlin didn’t get past 1: 1 (0: 0) in its “final” to the group final against Slavia Prague and missed the intermediate round in the Conference League. The European Cup comeback of the iron after 20 years of abstinence was therefore only a short pleasure.
Union, which would have progressed one lap if they had won second place in the group, acted much too timidly at the beginning and beat themselves when they conceded the decisive goal: Defender Timo Baumgartl played a catastrophic bad pass into the run of goalscorer Ivan Schranz (50th). The equalization of attacker Max Kruse (64th) and an urgent final offensive were not enough. Berlin was also lucky with two aluminum hits by the Czech champions.
The last group game took place in front of 5000 spectators in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the Corona regulation did not allow more visitors. Union’s home stadium “Alte Försterei” does not meet UEFA regulations as an international venue. Fischer changed his starting eleven to two positions: Frederik Rönnow was allowed to play again for goalkeeper Andreas Luthe, and captain Christopher Trimmel returned. “We’re not going to play hau-jerk football for more than 90 minutes,” Kruse had announced in advance – and in fact Union acted cautiously for a long time.
Counterattack not played out well enough
The respect for the current championship leader in the Czech Republic was clearly evident in the Iron. In terms of play, Union did not think of anything to lure the strong and ball-safe guests out of the reserve and to stage forward striker Taiwo Awoniyi, who has already scored nine times in the league.
The few counter-chances that the Fischer team had were played out way too badly in the first half. A deflected shot by Kruse, in which the ball landed on the goal net, was Union’s most dangerous action in the first round. Slavia was able to record a crossbar from Tomas Holes (34th).
The Berliners came out of the dressing room much more energetic, but an early double chance for Baumgartl and Awoniyi (48th) remained unused. Almost in return, the 0-1 fell, which forced the hosts to take even more risk. This opened up for Prague to counterattack, in the 55th minute Peter Olayinka hit the post after a counter-attack. However, that was a wake-up call for the Unioners. However, it was not enough for more than compensation.