Dhe 1. FC Union Berlin put a damper on SC Freiburg’s Champions League ambitions and secured their second entry into international business in a row. Led by attacker Sheraldo Becker, who was in a good mood, the Köpenickers won 4-1 (3-0) against the South Badeners on Saturday. Grischa Prömel (11th minute), Christopher Trimmel (30th), Becker himself (41st) and substitute András Schäfer (90th) scored the goals for the extremely efficient guests in front of 34,700 spectators in the Europa-Park Stadium. Lucas Höler (59th) shortened for the Sport-Club in the meantime.
After the penultimate day of the Bundesliga, Union is sixth in the table, ends the season in seventh place in the worst case and even has the chance to reach the premier class. Freiburg remains fourth for the time being, but could be pushed out of the Champions League ranks by RB Leipzig on Sunday.
Both teams played extremely passionately right from the start, but overall Freiburg experienced a first half to forget. Although the hosts had more possession of the ball, they found it difficult to create convincing chances against the compact defense of the Berliners. Union, in turn, convinced with his switching game – and the highly dangerous Becker.
The nimble offensive man appeared on the right and left and was hard to grasp for the sports club’s defence. Freiburg’s Maximilian Eggestein deflected a cross from the 27-year-old to the post of the SC goal, midfielder Prömel dusted off to give Union an early lead.
In the 23rd minute, Berlin goalkeeper Andreas Luthe, who had slipped into the team shortly before the start of the game for the injured Frederik Rönnöw, had to reach behind him. However, the supposed equalization by Höler did not count. According to the video images, referee Felix Brych decided on the Freiburg striker’s handball.
Handball: Freiburg’s Lucas Höler (right) creates an irregular advantage in a duel with Paul Jäckel
Source: AFP/THOMAS KIENZLE
And things got even worse for Baden: After another cross from Becker, visiting captain Trimmel headed in after half an hour to make it 2-0. Shortly before the break, Becker even went one better and beat SC keeper Mark Flekken from a tight angle to make it 3-0. Freiburg coach Christian Streich raged – and saw the yellow card.
In the second half, the SC coach brought his noble joker Nils Petersen and blew to catch up. The veteran substitute initially missed the huge chance of scoring a goal (54th). A short time later, another goal from Höler was not given because of an alleged offside position, but then after a video check it was. The Freiburgers kept the pressure on and acted a little better in the last third than before the break, but were no longer able to avoid their first defeat in five competitive games. The substitute shepherd even increased for Union with a low shot.
1. FC Cologne – VfL Wolfsburg 0: 1 (0: 1)
From the relegation straight to Europe – thanks to the support of the Rhenish rivals: 1. FC Köln secured qualification for the European Cup one matchday before the end of the season. The Rhinelanders conceded a 0:1 (0:1) against VfL Wolfsburg at home through the goal of Cologne-trained Yannick Gerhardt (43rd) and did not get the necessary point themselves. Since Bayer Leverkusen won 4-2 at TSG Hoffenheim, the counter was not necessary.
Cologne is therefore safe in the Conference League, if things go well, FC could move up to the Europa League in the coming week. The Cologne team also played in 2017/18, it was the only European Cup season in the past 30 years. For sixth place, Cologne, who only averted relegation last season in the relegation, would need a win in Stuttgart next week and at most a draw by Union Berlin against Bochum.
The positive tension in the city was palpable everywhere on Saturday. Especially around the arena. When the team bus pulled up at 2:09 p.m., it was greeted with great applause by numerous fans. Before kick-off, the fans unveiled a giant banner that read “Shoot us to Europe, do it again – 1. FC Köln, international”. There were over 200,000 ticket requests, 50,000 fans were allowed in.
And the eleven from Cologne – ten from the Augsburg starting eleven and Salih Özcan, who was suspended there – started energetically and highly motivated. After just one minute, VfL coach Florian Kohfeldt was standing on the sidelines gesticulating wildly to shake his team up. A few seconds later it almost made it 1-0, but goalkeeper Pavao Pervan made a brilliant save against Anthony Modeste.
The Austrian, who replaced Koen Casteels, who is suffering from a shoulder problem, has not been a lucky charm so far this season. Wolfsburg had lost all five games with him, conceding 14 goals. But in the 6th minute he was the savior again when he deflected a shot from Benno Schmitz onto the post.
After 0:5 shots on goal in the first ten minutes, Wolfsburg struggled a bit, got things in order and made it more difficult for Cologne to find gaps. Yes, the guests now had the great opportunity to take the lead themselves, but Max Kruse completed a counterattack too harmlessly after a template from Lukas Nmecha (30th).
And two minutes before the break it actually happened: Gerhardt converted a cross pass from Jonas Wind at the far corner to make it 0:1. It was the first goal in over a year for the ex-national player, who came to FC at the age of nine and moved to Wolfsburg after 13 years in 2016.
Wolfsburg leads in Cologne: VfL celebrates the 1-0 through former FC player Yannick Gerhardt
Which: REUTERS
After the break, Cologne pushed, but Florian Kainz failed at Pervan (53rd). After the supposed 0:2 by Lukas Nmecha, there was a brief shocking silence in the stadium (55th), but the video evidence showed the shooter to be offside. The Cologne fans cheered as if their team had scored. The FC pushed on. But Pervan surpassed himself, parrying three times brilliantly against Modeste (69/74/90+5). Instead, Leverkusen’s goals in Hoffenheim caused jubilation. The Cologne fans lit Bengalos and sang “European Cup”.
TSG Hoffenheim – Bayer Leverkusen 2:4 (2:1)
Mainly thanks to Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen celebrated their entry into the Champions League on the penultimate matchday. Coach Gerardo Seoane’s team won 4-2 (1-2) at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and secured third place in the table. The Czech striker scored his number 23 and 24 goals of the season in the 34th and 76th minute in front of 20,033 spectators in Sinsheim.
In this way, Bayer avoided the feared final for a place in the premier class at the season finale against SC Freiburg, who lost to Union Berlin at the same time. Hoffenheim and head coach Sebastian Hoeneß gambled away their last theoretical chances of entering the Europa League with the eighth winless game in a row, which was the declared goal of the season. Georginio Rutter (22nd) and Christoph Baumgartner (36th) gave the hosts the lead twice.
Moussa Diaby made it 2-2 (73′), Lucas Alario scored to make it 4-2 (90′ + 1′). With the 78th goal of the season, Leverkusen set a club record: the previous record was 77 goals in the 2001/2002 season.
In the early stages, Leverkusen put up a concentrated effort to counter the somewhat hectic attempts to attack by their opponents – right up until the point when Piero Hincapie let Christoph Baumgartner swipe the ball away from him. The Austrian international then served Rutter and gave the Frenchman his eighth goal of the season. The 20-year-old was the only one in the TSG squad to be in all the competitive games this round and whirled again, but had to be substituted at half-time due to shoulder pain.
So far there has been practically nothing to see of the Leverkusen attack. The equalizer came almost out of nowhere: Schick hit a cross from Diaby with a wonderful direct acceptance.
Hoffenheim responded immediately with Baumgartner’s header when goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky’s Bayer defense was not aware of a cross from Pavel Kaderabek.
Both teams started the second half much more cheerfully. Munas Dabbur for Hoffenheim and Diaby for Leverkusen initially both missed the chance to score more goals – then Leverkusen really turned up the heat. The strong Diaby with his 13th goal this season and again Schick made the TSG defense look really bad.
Somehow typical for Hoffenheim in this round that was so disappointing in the end: Vice world champion Andrej Kramaric, whom Hoeneß had made captain at short notice, shot past the empty goal after Jacob Bruun Larsen hit the post and thus missed the 3: 3.
Greuther Furth – Borussia Dortmund 1: 3 (0: 1)
Julian Brandt shot Borussia Dortmund to second place in the championship. With a brace against relegated SpVgg Greuther Fürth, the international eliminated the last theoretical doubts about second place behind permanent champion FC Bayern Munich. For Dortmund, the home farewell to Fürth coach Stefan Leitl was like a summer kick without the necessary sharpness and speed, but in the final phase of the 3: 1 (1: 0) they turned up the heat on Saturday.
Brandt converted BVB’s first chance in the 26th minute and restored the lead after the break (72′). With his first Bundesliga goal, Jessic Ngankam (70th) made the Fürth supporters cheer in the meantime. Felix Passlack (77th) increased with a deflected shot in the stadium, which was sold out with 16,626 fans.
Borussia around the goalless Erling Haaland showed only a tiny reaction after the indisputable 3: 4 against VfL Bochum and won through their higher individual class. In their last home game, the Fürthers were equal opponents for a long time.
Haaland has had difficult days. His advisor Mino Raiola died last Saturday and was buried in Monaco on Thursday. “You could tell that it weighed on him too, that he had a very close bond with Raiola just like Malen. That’s why there was no question for us to sack him on Thursday and he’ll still give it a go today,” said Dortmund’s licensed player boss Sebastian Kehl before the game.
Haaland, like teammate Donyell Malen, traveled to the funeral service. Like the rest of the team, the Norwegian found it difficult to get going against the Fürth team. Haaland kept encouraging his teammates to move up, while Dortmund initially didn’t do enough with their possession of the ball.
The industrious Fürth only gave BVB little space. Leitl also made sure of that with a clever change: Striker Jamie Leweling sometimes even gave a left-back and thus slowed down the offensive efforts of Dortmund on the right side.
The video referee spoiled Fürther’s jubilation about the supposed lead in the 23rd minute by captain Branimir Hrgota because of offside. The technically clearly superior Dortmund countered with a dust collector: keeper Andreas Linde only let a shot from Raphaël Guerreiro parry, Brandt followed up successfully.
The Fürth managing director Rachid Azzouzi spoke of a “sad day” because he had to say goodbye to promotion coach Leitl before the game. The 44-year-old, who is likely to move to Hannover 96, received a lot of encouragement from the stands, and his players applauded him.
In the second half, Dortmund had more space against more courageous hosts. Haaland kept getting stuck on a Fürth opponent and was later replaced without the big accents.
With a remarkable lob, Ngankam gave the Franconian fans a well-deserved goal celebration. In return, Brandt again completed a Dortmund counterattack. Passlack also tunneled Fürth’s goalkeeper Linde. A goal by Jude Bellingham (85th) did not count for offside.
