Europa League: Union Berlin between frustration and pride

Europe League
Union Berlin between frustration and pride

Berlin’s Morten Thorsby (l) and Union’s Bart Nieuwkoop fight for the ball. Photo

© Bruno Fahy/Belga/dpa

Union Berlin is looking for its lost strengths. The end of the European Cup in Belgium reinforces the impression that minds and bodies long for a break. The captain hopes for a quick recovery.

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 celebrated their team in Anderlecht’s Lotto Park – 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 used football In the evening not everything could have been bad for the Berliners.

pride and disappointment

“For me personally, even though it’s almost like a bitter end, I’m still proud that we’ve come this far. We’ve already enjoyed this trip,” said Union captain Christopher Trimmel in the stadium catacombs. The fans were still chanting Urs Fischer from the arena.

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.

Growing Doubts

“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. “In the end 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. / 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.

“The coach will find the right words, the president will find the right words, I’m in good spirits. As I know the team, they’ll sit together a bit because we have a good mentality. Don’t badmouth everything, in the end we’re there agree that it was outstanding”, was the overall conclusion of the Union captain’s European Cup season after the bitter Belgian end.

dpa

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