“Stand here as a sad man”
Union Berlin staggers towards the biggest game in history
September 16, 2023, 8:34 p.m
Everyone at Union Berlin is looking forward to the Champions League. However, the club is embarking on this great adventure at Real Madrid after two Bundesliga defeats in a row. Suddenly there are gaps in the otherwise secure defensive formation. What’s going on with the Köpenickers?
More than 5,000 fans of 1. FC Union Berlin who had traveled with us quickly forgot the 1:2 (1:2) draw at VfL Wolfsburg. They still celebrated their team on Saturday, after all, there are more important things in the life of a Union supporter these days than everyday life in the Bundesliga. Wednesday evening, Bernabeu Stadium: the first Champions League game in the club’s history – and at the most successful club this competition knows. “These are unique experiences, playing on a stage like this at the Bernabeu. Not everyone is allowed to do that,” said national player Robin Gosens before the game at Real Madrid.
Only Union coach Urs Fischer didn’t put up with the second Bundesliga defeat in a row quite so easily. 0:3 against Leipzig, now 1:2 in Wolfsburg: “I don’t think we’re looking forward to the game on Wednesday. This defeat needs to be dealt with and analyzed,” said the Swiss sternly.
In front of 28,917 spectators, the Wolfsburg team used exactly the tools that have turned the long-standing second division club Union into a Champions League participant in just five years: strength in duels, determination, extremely compact defending. And the Berliners found hardly any means to combat this. Before Jonas Wind made it 1-0 (12th minute), Union striker Kevin Behrens lost the ball while building up the game. And after Gosens’ equalizer (28th), it only took two minutes for Wolfsburg’s second Dane Joakim Maehle to volley past VfL again took the lead (30th).
Robin Gosens warns
“No game in the Bundesliga is easy. So we shouldn’t all go crazy now,” said Gosens. “We have to take the important things from the game: the intensity. The desire to defend. I think you’ve already seen the Union’s face today.” However, they “lost a game that didn’t have to be lost. That’s why I’m standing here today as a relatively sad man.”
Gosens and Wolfsburg: This is obviously a story that always starts promisingly and then doesn’t end happily for the 29-year-old. Before the season, there were initially many signs that the national player would be transferred to the Volkswagen club. The left-back was already in the city to take a look at the impressive training ground. Only when VfL did not want to meet Inter Milan’s transfer demands did Gosens move to Berlin.
Last weekend he played his first international match in Wolfsburg since moving to 1. FC Union, who had not previously had a national team player for the DFB team. In the 4-1 defeat against Japan, however, Gosens conceded a goal. And his third goal in the fourth Bundesliga game on Saturday wasn’t worth much either. Gosens headed home from Aissa Laidouni’s cross, then saluted in front of the south stand – and in the end drove home empty-handed.
Gosens’ job now is to pass on some of his experience to his teammates before the game in Madrid. Last season, the international reached the final of the Champions League with Inter Milan. With the exception of new defender Leonardo Bonucci, no one at Union has ever experienced something like this. Gosen’s most important message before the game at Real: “Awe and fear are exactly the two things we don’t need.”