Lothar Matthäus first pulled out his mobile phone. Even before his match analysis as an RTL expert, the German record national player wanted to quickly capture this scene as a video. 2,000 fans of 1. FC Union Berlin loudly cheered their team in the stadium in Anderlecht – after the highest international defeat in the history of the Bundesliga club.
The self-confessed Union admirer Matthäus was not the only one who developed a feeling that despite a needed After all, not everything could have been bad for the Berliners on a football night.
“For me personally, even if it’s just after such a bitter end, I’m still proud that we’ve come this far. We have already enjoyed this trip,” said Union captain Christopher Trimmel in the stadium catacombs. The fans were still chanting Urs Fischer from the arena.
“Then you don’t have to be surprised”
The discrepancy between pride and disappointment was one thing. The other reality is that the Berliners have not won five games in a row or, alternatively, only one game from the past eight appearances. In fourth place in the Bundesliga you are still above average for your own increased demands.
The Champions League could become the big stage for the return to Europe in September. But this downward trend cannot be ignored. When analyzing the error, coach Urs Fischer spoke plainly for his circumstances. The coach complained about individual failures in a continuous loop.
“If you make such mistakes, and not just since today, you don’t have to be surprised,” Fischer quarreled. Union must find itself again, demanded the 57-year-old. “At the end of the day, we have to function as a team. That got us to where we are,” said Fischer. But are strength and mental freshness enough at the moment? The doubts grow.
On Sunday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN) pursuer Eintracht Frankfurt – another bitter European Cup loser this week – comes to the stadium at the Alte Försterei. Trimmel is certain that the old mechanisms will then be working again.
Jean Lazare Amani celebrates his goal with an artistic interlude.
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Image: Reuters
“The coach will find the right words, the president will find the right words, I’m in good spirits. Knowing the team, they will sit together for a bit because we have a good mentality. Don’t badmouth everything, in the end we agree that it was outstanding,” was the overall conclusion of the Union captain’s European Cup season after the bitter Belgian end.
For Rani Khedira, on the other hand, frustration prevailed after being eliminated from the Europa League. “We were processed for over 90 minutes. That wasn’t Union Berlin-Like,” said the midfielder on the RTL microphone. “From the first to the last second we weren’t on the pitch, we weren’t agile, we weren’t aggressive, we didn’t get our game onto the pitch,” emphasized Khedira. Union was “therefore well deserved.”
Bone’s mistake heralds defeat
Team-mate Robin Knoche was also “disappointed because you had the chance to make it into the quarter-finals.” After Union came back three times in the first leg at the An der Alten Försterei stadium last week in a 3-3 win against the Belgians, there was no catching up this time .
Defender Knoche had put his teammate Diogo Leite under pressure with a bad pass and Teddy Teuma (18th minute) initiated the first goal, Lazare Amani (63rd) and Loic Lapoussin (90th + 4) destroyed Berlin’s hopes for the first Participation in a European quarterfinals finally final. “I said last week that we made too many mistakes, this time I made one,” admitted Knoche, adding that “from a little distance” the team can be proud of “what we’ve done in this competition have”.
