Berlin (dpa) – The demands are growing at 1. FC Union Berlin. Up until four games ago, staying in the league was officially the top priority, two games before the end of the season it should be at least a return to the Conference League. “If you’re seventh two games before the end, then you must have earned it. We didn’t get it for free,” said coach Urs Fischer at the press conference on Thursday before the game at SC Freiburg on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky).
Before the duel between the two cult clubs, Fischer emphasized that his team had achieved something extraordinary so far, “but it’s not quite over yet”. To secure seventh place, which entitles them to qualify for the Conference League, Union still needs two points from the games in Freiburg and the season finale against VfL Bochum. There is a certain amount of pressure “because something is still possible,” said Fischer. Köpenicker, who with 51 points have already surpassed their previous best season last season (50 points), are five points ahead of Hoffenheim.
However, Fischer is acting just as cautiously as before in the fight for remaining in the league, the goal of which the Swiss only saw achieved when the 40-point mark was reached. “We would do well not to rely on the last game, we also want to score points in Freiburg,” said Fischer.
But opponents Freiburg have already equaled their record with 55 points and, as fourth in the table, are on the way to the Champions League. “They play sensationally, I take my hat off to them. They show consistency throughout the game and have always been able to react, in a spirit of solidarity. It’s incredibly difficult to play against them,” said Fischer about the team that has played in the past eleven league games only suffered one defeat. “They are rightly in the DFB Cup final as well as in the race for international places.”
But the Unioners, who have been unbeaten for five matchdays, can also play with a stronger chest. With 13 points, no other team in the upper house collected as many points as Union in April. With a success in Breisgau – in six games so far in the past three years, Union has only lost once with three wins and two draws – Union could shorten the gap to fifth-placed Leipzig and sixth-placed Cologne, who have three or one point more than Berlin exhibit.
Fischer, who still has to do without the sick Timo Baumgartl, once again demands something extraordinary from his team in order to start the journey home with one or three points in his luggage. “I don’t know the statistics. But you need an extraordinary game and an extraordinary performance over 90 minutes to survive,” he said.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220505-99-170335/3
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