Bundesliga: Iron in Europa League: Everything ready for the big party

Another game, a home game. It couldn’t be better: The old forester’s house will tremble. Far beyond the final whistle. There are reasons. The most important is called the European Cup.

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The schedule for the lavish party of the Iron is set. A good hour before the after-jubilee time kicks off on the balcony in the An der Försterei stadium, coach Urs Fischer and his team want to crown their third season in the Bundesliga – by entering the second highest European club competition. “It’s crazy to improve again compared to last season,” said Fischer two days before the last game of the season this Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky) in Berlin-Köpenick against the already secured promoted VfL Bochum.

At 6:30 p.m., after a long and extensive lap of honor on the pitch, the players want the fans to celebrate and say goodbye from the gallery above the parking lot in front of the stadium. Sunday a (hangover) breakfast together, then the pros can go on vacation. “The team is in focus, the team is ready,” said Fischer before the game, in which a draw and even a defeat can be enough to get into the Europa League, but doesn’t have to be.

Chaser 1. FC Köln is two points behind in seventh place in the Conference League and is playing 16th in the table. VfB Stuttgart. “I’ll be up to date,” assured Fischer, looking at what was happening in the country. As always, however, no interim results are displayed or announced by the Unioners in the stadium during the game – only at half-time and after the final whistle.

Fischer does not want to change his approach even before the last game of another extremely successful Union season. The Irons cracked the 40-point mark early on and, after the ticked-off goal of staying in the league, set themselves a new one: the European Cup. “We’ll approach the game the way we always do it,” assured Fischer, whose team has scored 16 points in the past six games – no team in the league has been more successful. At home in the temple of mood in East Berlin, Union has only suffered one defeat in the past ten games.

The low result after the departure of Max Kruse at the end of January has long been forgotten. “There is no recipe for this. I haven’t. But I’ll try, »said Fischer in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung (Thursday): «It helps if you look ahead. You will no longer be able to influence what happened.”

But what was also reads impressively: A year after Fischer’s arrival in Berlin in the summer of 2018, Union rose, the following year managed to stay in the class prematurely, then made it into the Conference League. This season, Union also only failed in the cup semi-finals and, thanks to three victories, became the undisputed unofficial champion of the capital.

It hurts Fischer that another top performer will leave the team after this season. There is of course a certain melancholy, said Fischer about Grischa Prömel’s imminent departure for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim: “You are losing a very good player. But it’s also the way things go.”

dpa

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