Köpenick celebrates the golden twenties, Union Berlin has achieved the greatest success in the club’s history by entering the Champions League. Exactly four years to the day after promotion to the Bundesliga, coach Urs Fischer’s team won 1-0 (0-0) against Werder Bremen and bought the ticket for dream games against Manchester City, FC Barcelona or Paris St. Germain. The goal of the day was scored by Rani Khedira (81′).
Fischer and his coaching team hugged after the final whistle, the players danced in circles and put on Champions League shirts. “We are in the golden twenties. Union international – premier class 2023/24” was on the scoreboard. It will be the first Champions League games in the capital since the 1999/00 season. At that time, Hertha BSC competed in the premier class.
“What a season, you really can’t complain,” said a banner that the fans unrolled immediately after the final whistle and sang: “Nonse shit, Champions League.”
Bremen’s national player Niclas Füllkrug didn’t score with the harmless guests, but with 16 goals the attacker became Bundesliga top scorer and set a record: the top scorer cannon has never been awarded to a player with fewer than 17 goals.
Supposed penalty is taken back
59 points each, 50 goals scored each – the starting position for the duel with Freiburg could hardly have been more explosive for Union. Only because of the slightly better goal difference did the Berliners start the matchday with an advantage.
Union played to win to ensure clear conditions. The Irons started highly concentrated and offensively aligned. Union was strong in winning the ball. However, the switching actions lacked accuracy in the last third.
The first cheers in the old forester’s cauldron quickly fell silent. Referee Patrick Ittrich had decided on a penalty kick, but corrected this after viewing the video images (9th).
Khedira provides redemption
Union then shifted the game almost exclusively to the Bremen half. Neither standards nor playful solutions provided acute danger. The target players rarely reached crosses.
After the change of sides, Union was looking for a degree more often. Jerome Roussillon (50′) was denied by Jiri Pavlenka, a free-kick cross from Christopher Trimmel (62′) narrowly missed the goal, Sheraldo Becker (73′) shot from a tight angle before Khedira saved the hosts in the closing stages.
Union Berlin – Werder Bremen: The voices of the game
Urs Fischer (Coach Union Berlin): “I have to let what we have achieved first sink in. It will be important that we remain true to ourselves, continue to show humility and modesty and not change too much. That will be the challenge. It was the difficult game that I expected. What I’m really proud of is how calm the team stayed. We deserved to win the game.”
Ole Werner (Werder Bremen coach): “It was the game you could expect. We defended it well for a long time. In the first half we didn’t put enough ball onto the pitch. In the end we ran out of energy a bit.”
Union Berlin – Werder Bremen: The data for the game
