“Addio a Napoli,” the great Neapolitan singer Enrico Caruso once languished, “addio alla Champions League,” sang 1. FC Union Berlin in Naples on Wednesday evening. Despite winning their first point after twelve defeats in a row across all competitions, the Köpenickers now know that they will not spend the winter in the premier class. After a laboriously but bravely fought draw at SSC Napoli, they are six points behind second-placed Napoli two games before the end of the preliminary round of Group C – which the direct comparison speaks for. The Unioners still celebrated, probably hoping that this draw would be the turning point in a terrible season with 12 defeats in a row.
Especially since they achieved it in an extremely hostile atmosphere. Shortly after the start of the game it became clear that it would have been better to enter the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with earmuffs. This initially only applied to Union defender Leonardo Bonucci, who was whistled every time he touched the ball because, as a Juventus icon, he is one of the Neapolitans’ enemies. But the rest of the Köpenick delegation was soon taken into consideration. Because from the “Curva A”, for which the label “notorious” seems like a euphemism, a dozen firecrackers flew in the first half hour towards the immediately adjacent block with the Union fans, and later also red flares.
Local observers attributed the attacks to clashes the evening before and that morning, which led to at least 16 arrests of German fans. On the other hand, the behavior of the stadium security seemed quite scandalous, as they only entered the conflict zone at a leisurely pace. Once there, what was happening on the pitch seemed to be more interesting to the law enforcement officers than possible misconduct in the stands.
Sometimes a draw makes both coaches happy: Naples’ Rudi Garcia with Berlin’s Urs Fischer (right), whose losing streak ended.
(Photo: Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
Which was surprising because the game was of poor quality. Union had the first chance through David Fofana (4th), but then Napoli digested the distraction from the stands better than the guests. The Italians appeared as unmoved as the Dutch referee Danny Makkelie – and took control of the pitch. Piotr Zielinski failed from close range (21′), then Napoli’s Brazilian defender Natan hit the post. There was a brief excitement when Zambo Anguissa scored to make it 1-0. But after the intervention of the video referee, the referee recognized what most of the spectators had immediately seen from the seats that felt like they were miles away: that Napoli’s Giovanni di Lorenzo had not just leaned on Union’s left-back Jérôme Roussillon, but had abused him as a kind of leader, before he gave the header assist.
In the 39th minute, Napoli did take the lead – in an absurd, almost comedic way: Berlin right-back Josip Juranovic deflected a cross from the left so badly that the ball bounced off Matteo Politano’s chest and into the goal. Immediately before the break, Union’s Juranovic hit a direct free kick on the left post – setting the tone for the second half.
As the number of firecrackers decreased, the interesting scenes increased
It turned out to be much more interesting, more colorful and faster than the first 45 minutes. As the number of firecrackers decreased, the number of interesting scenes increased. Because Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia woke up and Union turned what had been a solid performance into a good performance – and equalized. Roussillon sent Fofana deep, who passed it across to Sheraldo Becker, who was running along with him, and when his shot could only be slapped away by Alex Meret, Fofana pushed in. It was Berlin’s first goal after more than 500 minutes of drought in front of opposing goals.
The game was then open. On the one hand, Union appeared more self-confident than before, but on the other hand, Naples’ latent preponderance grew into superiority because Union defended deeply and only rarely launched attacks to relieve the pressure. First a long shot from substitute Christopher Trimmel brought danger, after a good counterattack Lucas Tousart, who was also substitute, narrowly missed the goal. In stoppage time, Union goalkeeper Rönnow parried a shot from Kvaratskhelia – but Union couldn’t miss the point.