Andreas Luthe pointed helplessly with both hands on the lawn. After a back pass, the goalkeeper of 1. FC Union slipped on the wet and rather battered course of the Berlin Olympic Stadium and made it possible for Cyriel Dessers to achieve the very flattering 2-1 for Feyenoord Rotterdam. His teammates immediately ran up to him and encouraged him, the audience also supported him with “Luthe, Luthe” shouts. In the end, none of this helped. Union lost 1: 2 (1: 1) against Feyenoord in front of 30,000 spectators on Thursday evening.
Since Slavia Prague won against Maccabi Haifa in a parallel game, the Berliners still have realistic chances of second place after four out of six match days, which would be enough for the intermediate round of the Conference League. Fortunately, after the events on Wednesday and the previous story from Rotterdam, things remained quite quiet in and around the stadium until the end of the game.
Union coach Urs Fischer had to do without the injured Max Kruse again and ordered Taiwo Awoniyi to take a short break. Kevin Behrens started for him. In addition, compared to the 2: 5 against FC Bayern on Saturday, the Swiss relied on Marvin Friedrich, Tymoteusz Puchacz and Levin Öztunali, who had returned from quarantine, instead of Timo Baumgartl, Niko Gießelmann and Grischa Prömel.
Unlike against Munich and in the first leg against Feyenoord, Union found a little better in the game. Although the Dutch had visual advantages, the first big chance belonged to the Berliners. After a long ball, Sheraldo Becker ran away from his opponent and ended up surprisingly free in front of Justin Bijlow. His shot lacked the necessary precision and so the Rotterdam goalkeeper was able to parry.
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Both teams had quite a problem with the difficult surface. In both five-meter rooms and on a long strip on the side of the main stand, there was more mud than grass. But not only there the ball almost stayed in places. The guests succeeded in their first constructive action, but they were also able to act surprisingly unrestricted because the Berliners did not get into the duels at all. The ball came to Bryan Linssen in the penalty area over several stations. His shot hit the inside post, but Luis Sinisterra reacted the fastest and dusted off.
Before the game, Fischer had confirmed that his team was aware of the importance of the game – and that’s how they played after the deficit. Puchacz missed his first chance to equalize when his shot from an acute angle flew past the far corner. Genki Haraguchi hit the goal, but Bijlow defused his low shot.
In the final phase, Trimmel and Teuchert flew off the pitch at Union
During this phase, there was not much resistance from the guests, either from the stands or on the lawn. The Dutch had shown in the first leg that they could play decent football even without the big stars of previous years, but in the constant rain in Berlin they looked very listless.
Union’s pressure continued to increase and at the end of the first half the balance was clearly in the air. When Behrens shot, Marcos Senesi was just able to get his leg in between, but in the 41st minute the time had come – and in a rather unusual way. Right-back Christopher Trimmel appeared on the left-hand side after a series of attempts at Berlin’s cross and flicked the ball from 20 meters into the far corner.
After the break, Union continued to dominate the game and had the next chance through Haraguchi. Feyenoord seemed to be able to live well with the point win and almost completely stopped the offensive efforts. Nevertheless, they had the greatest chance after a bad pass from Puchacz. Union goalkeeper Andreas Luthe saved his team against the free-standing Linssen from falling behind.
As a result, the game got wilder. It went back and forth, clear structures were barely recognizable. After Luthe’s slip, Union tried everything again, but the substitute Awoniyi couldn’t turn the game around either. The fact that Trimmel with yellow-red and the substitute Cedric Teuchert with red had to leave the field early shortly before the end caused the mood on the Berlin side to boil again, but then it was over.
