After the narrow victory at Maccabi Haifa, Union Berlin are delighted about the chance of making the Conference League play-offs. Urs Fischer and his players, however, were also self-critical
The final highlight of this Thursday evening for Union supporters was probably provided by Cyriel Dessers. The Feyenoord Rotterdam striker scored an injury-time equaliser against Slavia Prague to improve the Berliners’ starting position once again: a win, no matter how high, against the Czechs on the final matchday is now enough to enter the Conference League play-offs.
Kruse: “We could have made the game more dominant “
Just a few minutes before Desser’s goal, Union’s game had already come to an end: The narrow 1-0 victory at Maccabi Haifa was official and the chance to spend the winter in international business was preserved. Max Kruse expressed his relief after the game: “We are happy that we won. That’s all that counts today.” His team now had the “final” they wanted in a fortnight’ time.
However, the attacker was not completely satisfied with the performance of the Köpenick team in Israel: “We could have made the game more dominant. We won the ball a lot, but then gave it away again,” said Kruse, who added: “It’s not easy here either, we’re not used to the temperatures at the moment. Quite a few other teams haven’t been able to win here, we’ve already put in a certain performance.” Julian Ryerson’s winning goal was Haifa’s first conceded in front of a home crowd this Conference League season.
Captain Marvin Friedrich also said this was “not our best game”. “In the first half we made too many mistakes, kept inviting Haifa to counterattacks.” He struck the same tone as coach Urs Fischer, who criticised that his team had struggled unnecessarily in the game with the ball and had too many unnecessary, simple ball losses. “But,” said the Swiss coach: “We did it – and now we have this final at home.”
On 9 December Union will host Slavia Prague at Berlin’s Olympiastadion.
