The fans of the Irons were in a party mood, but the defeated were tired and exhausted: 1. FC Union beat local rivals Hertha BSC in the derby in the Olympic Stadium. And SC Freiburg won the game against TSG Hoffnheim.
The Irons danced and celebrated with their 200 fans, the defeated players from their capital rivals Hertha BSC lay tired and disappointed on the lawn of the Olympic Stadium. 1. FC Union has impressively demonstrated the new balance of power in football in the capital. With a 3:2 (1:0) win at Hertha, the Köpenickers moved back into the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup after two years and humiliated their local rivals, who were left behind in sport, in their Olympic Stadium. “We gave everything and I think we deservedly won,” said Union star player Max Kruse: “We have music, we’ll celebrate a little more.”
Two months after the comfortable 2-0 win in the Bundesliga duel, the team of successful coach Urs Fischer was playfully and tactically superior again in the capital city derby on Wednesday evening. Hertha braced themselves against the defeat, but showed frightening defensive weaknesses. “We defend like a school team,” said Hertha’s sports director Arne Friedrich on Sky: “It’s difficult to put into words.”
Bite and passion – the Derby virtues on the pitch
Andreas Voglsammer (11th minute) with an artistic side kick, Niklas Stark with an own goal (50th) and Robin Knoche (55th) scored for the cup finalists from 2001, who even had good chances after their first away derby win in eleven years can count on a return to the Olympic Stadium for the final on May 21st. Suat Serdar scored twice for Hertha (54′, 90′ + 4′). Coach Tayfun Korkut has to continue the tough development work of an insecure team – on Sunday in the home game of the Bundesliga against FC Bayern Munich.
And the disgrace for the Charlottenburg club became apparent after just a few seconds. Less than ten seconds were played when Max Kruse checked Alexander Schwolow. Less than a minute was played before the Hertha keeper had to save against Voglsammer. Bite, passion – the Irons brought the Derby virtues directly to the newly laid lawn, none of it initially with the host. The leadership of the Unioner was only the logical consequence of the initially significant performance difference between the rivals in the capital.
From his own half, Dominique Heintz hit the ball on the left to Kruse. The 33-year-old creative spirit of the guests crossed in the middle, actually a bit too far for Voglsammer. But he used the cross in the air. “There’s always a bit of luck involved,” said Voglsammer on ARD. Hertha’s captain Dedryck Boyata, back in the starting eleven, was far too far away in the scene.
Hit from offside
The face of Hertha managing director Fredi Bobic darkened and took on grim proportions in November when the derby collapsed in the league. And it almost got worse in the first half despite a gradual improvement of the Korkut team. After a cross from Voglsammer hit Stark’s arm, a hand penalty threatened. However, a previous offside position was determined by video evidence.
After a good half hour, Andreas Luthe had to intervene in the Union goal for the first time, a harmless cross. Nevertheless, it was noticeable that the blue and whites wanted to fight their way back into the game. Serdar hit the side netting with a header, but otherwise simply lacked the means to convert the now more powerful game into chances. When the ball squirmed in the visitors’ net before the break in stoppage time, cheers erupted in the almost empty Olympic Stadium. However, Serdar’s goal was disallowed due to an offside position.
Goals then fell in a rapid opening phase of the second half. First, Vladimir Darida missed a huge chance for Hertha from close range. Then it happened in quick succession: Stark pushed the ball into his own goal for the second Union goal, Serdar scored from an acute angle to score the goal for Hertha. But the problem remained, the will alone was not enough for the Korkut team. Knoche exploited the massive defensive weaknesses with a billiard goal, Union had never scored three goals in a derby against Hertha.
Own goal in front of almost empty ranks
And SC Freiburg has also come a little closer to the DFB Cup. Artistic shooter Vincenzo Grifo knocked TSG 1899 Hoffenheim out of the DFB Cup and made SC Freiburg dream of winning their first national title. The 28-year-old Italian scored two goals in the 4-1 (2-0) round of 16 on Wednesday evening (10th minute/36th/hand penalty) and thus decided the Baden-Württemberg duel in favor of the Breisgauer early on. In front of only 500 allowed spectators, TSG only briefly hoped for an own goal by returnee Nico Schlotterbeck (53rd). Kevin Schade (55th) and Ermedin Demirovic (67th) scored the final score. A late second goal by Hoffenheim by Ihlas Bebou was disallowed for offside.
At Hoffenheim, the experiment of leaving striker Andrej Kramaric on the bench failed. The Kraichgauers, who are otherwise so offensively strong, seemed harmless and hardly created any chances. The sports club, which also benefited from the return of goalkeeper Mark Flekken and Schlotterbeck in the important victory, now has a great opportunity to win something in the cup, which was severely decimated after the elimination of Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen. The quarterfinals will take place on March 1st and 2nd.
“We’re going to enjoy the evening first and then we’ll see what kind of lot we get. And then of course we’ll do everything, everything, everything humanly possible to win against the next opponent,” said Grifo on TV Channel Sky. Hoffenheim’s Bebou struggled with his team’s performance: “We were a bit too passive in the first half. Freiburg simply did well.”
game with emotions
In a game that was fast-paced from the start, Italian national player Grifo set the first exclamation mark. He completed a clean counterattack by the guests with a remarkable flick. TSG was much too slow in moving backwards. Things got emotional after a good half hour when TSG coach Sebastian Hoeneß had a heated argument with Freiburg’s pros after a foul.
They could celebrate a few moments after Schlotterbeck shot Hoffenheim’s outstretched arm Bebou – referee Robert Schröder decided on a penalty, which in turn Grifo safely converted. So the preliminary decision was made before the break. The ripped off Grifo symbolized the extremely efficient people of Freiburg. The few Hoffenheim fans yelled loudly for Kramaric to be substituted quickly.
The Croatian and striker Dabbur then came into play after the break, with Hoeneß correcting his original line-up. That helped for a while. Kramaric was directly involved in several scenes: he also played a key role in initiating Schlotterbeck’s own goal, which wanted to clear the ball from the line. But the joy about the goal didn’t last long, almost in return, Schade scored to make it 3-1 and thus restored the old gap. Demirovic’s goal finally brought the decision.
