Status: 01/19/2022 11:11 p.m
The question of the city championship has been clarified: Union is not only clearly better in the league, but has also thrown Hertha out of the DFB Cup.
The 3: 2 (1: 0) for the Irons was fine because Union was the better team in terms of play and in the end. Although Hertha made an effort, promising attacks kept getting stuck in the beginning.
Kruse with the first chance
For the hosts in the Olympic Stadium, the game went in the wrong direction right from the start. Union was – possibly also due to the announcement by Hertha coach Tayfun Korkut that Hertha was number one in the city after all – and had the first chance after just ten seconds. After a pass from Andreas Voglsammer, Max Kruse failed to head Alexander Schwolow.
Ten minutes later, the attack was rewarded – with a dream goal. Kruse was too fast on the left for the sluggish Hertha defense and actually crossed a tad too long to the second post. But Voglsammer transported the ball with a mixture of volley, overhead kick and side kick over Schwolow to the left into the far corner – a clear candidate for the goal of the month.
Lucky with the VAR
As a result, Hertha got a little more pressure, but they didn’t get more than a few blocked shots. Instead, Union could almost have followed up after half an hour, but the video assistant referee came to the host’s help. Referee Deniz Aytekin had already decided on a penalty after a handball by Niklas Stark, but the VAR recognized an offside position in advance – Voglsammer had just been in the forbidden zone when he crossed.
Tight decisions remained an issue in this game. Shortly before the break, Hertha also celebrated for the first time, Suat Serdar had completed a preliminary work by Ishak Belfodil and Maximilian Mittelstädt from close range in the blink of an eye. But Belfodil was slightly offside beforehand, so the supposed 1-1 was not recognized.
Stark hits the wrong goal
Even after the change, Korkut’s protégés were unlucky. First Vladimir Darida threw the ball over the Union goal from seven yards, then Stark made another mistake: The defender wanted to clear a sharp cross from Levin Öztunali in front of Voglsammer, but pushed the ball over his own goal line: 0:2 (50 ‘).
The game seemed to be decisive, but Hertha now risked everything – and then had luck on their side. After Belfodil’s preliminary work, Serdar started for the baseline, probably wanted to pass into the middle, but deflected by Rani Khedira, the ball tumbled past the surprised Andreas Luthe into the near corner (54th). Shortly before the end came the message from the DFB. The goal counts as an own goal by Khedira.
Not even a minute of hope
But the hope of catching up was quickly stifled. Less than a minute after the connection, Union was again ahead with two goals: Bastian Ocipka crossed a free kick sharply in front of the Hertha goal, the central defender Robin Knoche held off the right inside instep and immediately increased it again to 3:1.
The efforts of the Hertha team could not be denied afterwards, but against the calmly defending Union team it all seemed too harmless and not powerful enough. The irons limited themselves to a few counterattacks, but even those were more dangerous than the vice mayor’s constant attacks. Only in the fifth minute of stoppage time did Serdar maneuver the ball over the line again – but seconds later Aytekin called the game off.
“Now we celebrate”
Max Kruse was then happy on the sports show microphone: “I don’t think Andreas himself expected the first goal to hit like that. But it was important because we knew that we would get spaces against Hertha after a lead. Now there will definitely be a proper celebration in the dressing room.”
Hertha now against Bayern
Hertha now has the next difficult task ahead of them, on Sunday (01/23/22) Bayern Munich is a guest in the Olympic Stadium. The Irons have a task that seems very solvable at the moment: They play at Borussia Mönchengladbach the day before.
Source: sportschau.de