In the first leg of the Europa League round of 16, 1. FC Union conceded three goals at home. The guests from Belgium lurked for mistakes and the iron ones did them the favour. They owe the fact that they still have chances to their mentality.
“Nobody will dare, nobody will dare to beat our FCU,” is one of the older Gassenhauer of Union Berlin fans. In the past, they tended to sing this song ironically.
But parallel to the flight of the last few years, the Iron Ones sing the lines more and more seriously. Not without reason: In the last 13 months, only one team has managed to beat FCU at their home stadium An der Alten Försterei: Royale Union Saint Gilloise from Brussels. As the Belgians who won the Europa League group stage in Berlin in September 2022 had returned to Koepenick on Thursday for the round of 16 of the same competition, it looked several times as if they could do it again. Also because Urs Fischer’s team actively supported them.
Union does not look good when conceding a goal
Defense chief (and goalscorer) Robin Knoche put it in a nutshell: “We were too stupid with two and a half of the three goals we conceded today, I think you have to be that honest.” After a dominant early phase with several clear chances to score, it happened, as so often happens when a team does not convert their chances.
The young Victor Boniface pulled from the second row after about half an hour, Unions Kevin Behrens deflected the shot untenable for keeper Frederik Rönnow. What sounds unfortunate was an avoidable mistake. Because the Union defense not only failed to disturb the preparer Yorbe Vertessen, who was allowed to dribble from the corner flag to the corner of the penalty area unmolested. He served Boniface, who was allowed to turn up the heat before his shot. Behrens only held out his pickaxe, which decisively changed the trajectory of the shot. It would have been better if he had put the scorer in an open position.
Individual mistakes in the second half
The mistakes in front of the second and third goal of the guests were even clearer. Before the 1:2 Christopher Trimmel played a devastating pass in the build-up game, before the 2:3 neither Diogo Leite nor Knoche consistently disturbed the counterattack. Trimmel also saw individual mistakes, but at Union they knew what football was like. “That happens sometimes,” the captain apologized.
He is right. However, both goals were announced, because at least since the defeat in September, the Union knew how dangerous Saint-Gilloise attacks in a direct counterattack. Coach Urs Fischer criticized angrily: “When we conceded goals, we sometimes look very bad, we can do that much better.”
Saint-Gilloise lures the central defenders
However, the individual mistakes in front of the goals conceded do not yet explain why such unusually large spaces were created behind the three-man chain of the Irons. Of course, there would be Union ball possession of 61 percent. Even more interesting is a look at which players had that possession. Knowing that the Berliners have problems playing through the middle, the low-lying Belgians often delivered the track players Trimmel and Josip Juranovic.
The central defenders had to move up unusually high with the ball in order to look for passes. “These were the players who had to hit the flanks,” explained Trimmel. In addition to the space behind the chain, this had another effect. Diogo Leite in particular didn’t feel comfortable in his unfamiliar role and played a few bad passes. “Of course that’s a risk, because you’re more offensive, and then you have good transition moments,” said Trimmel.
Mentality preserves opportunities
But it wasn’t all bad. In this case, it was not a GDR nostalgic who said that, but also Trimmel. Because if the team didn’t show their usual strengths in defensive behavior, they did it with their mentality. Although the Irons fell behind three times, they came back three times and equalized each time. A wonderful free kick from Juranovic, Knoche’s fourth Europa League goal of the season and SVen Michel’s goal in the 90th minute caused emotional outbursts in the stands and a reasonable starting position.
“If we had gone into the second leg with a defeat, it would have been disgusting,” Michel said a little later, relieved. The 3:3 allows a lot, coach Fischer also had to admit, although he was not satisfied with the statistics and the mistakes. To do this, he must be able to find an answer to Saint-Gilloise’s style of play. Sven Michel trusts in it: “I’m very confident.”
Broadcast: rbb24, March 9th, 2023, 9:45 p.m
