Champions League
The whim of the football god: Union demands Real in the Bernabéu
Union coach Urs Fischer faces a huge challenge. photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Thousands of Union fans make a pilgrimage to Madrid. The Eisernen’s premiere in the Champions League is the preliminary culmination of the Köpenick football saga. Coach Fischer faces a huge challenge.
When the Union Berlin team bus turns onto the Paseo de la Castellana, Urs Fischer also feels the tingling sensation of the premier class. Champions League. At Real Madrid. At the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. That still sounds unreal. Like a good mood from the football god, who has been kind to the Iron Men for so long.
“We are not yet a Champions League club,” said coach Fischer about the dimension that is currently affecting his team. The Swiss can no longer explain all of this with his typical understatement.
The duel with the record champion with Toni Kroos, Antonio Rüdiger and Jude Bellingham on Wednesday (6.45 p.m./DAZN) is a reality. So the meticulous coach needs adequate preparation after arriving at the Four Seasons Hotel on Calle Sevilla, less than 15 minutes from the Bernabéu.
Awe and fear not desired
When the huge silver bowl in the heart of the Spanish capital comes into view, all fears and all sentimentality must be forgotten or at least hidden. “Awe and fear are exactly the two things we don’t need,” said Robin Gosens.
The international reached for the huge trophy with Inter Milan in May, but the 1-0 defeat in the final against Manchester City hurt. The 29-year-old was brought to Berlin by Union Berlin’s wonder buyer Oliver Ruhnert as well as Italy’s European champion Leonardo Bonucci precisely for these big appearances. The Union managing director had new financial flexibility thanks to the premier class qualification. The Iron Team have already pocketed 15.64 million euros in entry fees and a mid-single-digit million amount from the coefficient rule before possible point bonuses are paid out.
Union at Real. However, much more contrast is hardly possible in top European football. Here the workers’ club from Berlin-Köpenick, which persistently styles itself as an underdog, there the trophy collectors’ club, which is oriented towards galactic glamour. Union’s only title, the FDGB Cup victory in 1968, disappears in the shadow of the Royals’ 14 Henkel pots alone.
Union’s lasting miracle
But why shouldn’t Union’s long-term miracle since promotion to the Bundesliga four years ago continue at the Bernabéu? “90 minutes of football in which the small opponent can sometimes hurt the big opponent. There are numerous examples of this in football,” said Gosens. You can’t afford to be sloppy, as was the case recently in the league against RB Leipzig (0:3) and VfL Wolfsburg (1:2). “But it’s also a nice experience to play against a team like that, we try to do our best, fight as a team and maybe something is possible,” said defender Danilho Doekhi.
In the Bundesliga and last year in the Europa League, the ignorance of the opponents often helped. But the Union is no longer so small as to be underestimated, not even internationally. And then there is Toni Kroos, the big brother of Felix Kroos, the former Union captain. “I was allowed to warn a little about Union,” he reported shortly after the draw in the “Einfach mal Luppen” podcast with his brother about his Real colleagues’ curiosity about the unusual opponent from East Berlin.