Champions League
Union manager: “The Bernabéu can kill you too”
Union Berlin manager Oliver Ruhnert talks about the Champions League debut in Madrid. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
In the evening, Union Berlin will play the first Champions League game in the club’s history: in Madrid, against Real, in the Bernabéu Stadium. Manager Ruhnert is one of the few who already knows its power.
“It will be an additional important issue for Real to successfully inaugurate the new Bernabéu in the Champions League. Madrid will want to make it clear to us from the first minute how strong they are. We have to be aware of that and we have to defend ourselves against it,” Ruhnert told “Sport Bild” before the game today (6:45 p.m./DAZN). The Royals will play in the European Cup for the first time this season in the stadium, which was renovated for 400 million euros.
As head of Knappenschmiede, the Bundesliga club’s youth department, Ruhnert was a guest at FC Schalke 04’s quarter-final second leg in the Spanish record champions’ mighty stadium in 2015.
“It was a great experience. But at the same time you also saw what impact the whole thing at the Bernabéu can have. You then say to yourself: Phew, it’s another world again. That’s why you have to be careful, the Bernabéu can also overwhelm you .”
Premier class:
Hardly any other statistic better illustrates the differences between Union and Real. Of course, everything is new for the Iron Men in the Champions League before their first appearance. The Royals hold almost all the records in the premier class, as they proudly list on their homepage, the most participations (54), the most titles (14), the most wins (285) and of course the most goals (1047).
Title:
55 years ago, Union won the GDR cup competition. In front of the stadium in Berlin-Köpenick, a statue commemorates the victory in the FDGB Cup in 1968. Real could build a ring around their own arena with such sculptures. 35 Spanish championship titles, 20 cup victories, 14 successes in the national championship cup and the Champions League, two UEFA Cups, eight club world champions and various Super Cups in Spain and Europe.
Stadion:
The stadium at the Alte Försterei has its charm and is revered as a place of worship by its own fans. But with a capacity of only 22,012 spectators, the jewel box in Berlin’s Wuhlheide is of course a miniature version by international standards. It’s not for nothing that the Iron Men are moving to the unpopular Olympic Stadium with its more than 74,000 seats for their at least three home games in the Champions League. But that doesn’t come close to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu either; the arena in the heart of Madrid, which has just been extensively renovated, can accommodate 81,044 fans.
Superstars:
Union reached completely new dimensions during the summer break with the transfers of Italy’s European champion Leonardo Bonucci and DFB national player Robin Gosens. Until then, Max Kruse was still the best-known name in the short history of the Bundesliga. At Real, however, there are still completely different names around even after Karim Benzema’s farewell. Former world champion Toni Kroos, former world footballer Luka Modric and runner-up world champion Aurélien Tchouaméni are known to fans all over the world. The next generation is already ready in Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga and Arda Güler.