Bundesliga News

Germany: Bundesliga
FT
1 - 6
(1 - 3)
Schalke 04
Union Berlin
M. Bülter (31)
M. Thorsby (6), S. Becker (36), J. Haberer (45), S. Becker (46), S. Michel (87), S. Michel (90)

Union remain reserved after five-goal-win: "We were the luckier team."

By Peter Weis   @PeterVicey

After taking a dig at Schalke 04 keeper Alexander Schwolow, FCU manager Oliver Ruhnert conceded that a little bit of luck had been on his team's side during Saturday's 6-1 rout of FC Schalke 04. 

Union trainer Urs Fischer and Janik Haberer, scorer of one of the critical goals, both agreed with this assessment.
Oliver Ruhnert
Oliver RuhnertFraktion DIE LINKE CC-BY-SA 2.0
FC Union Berlin departed Gelsenkirchen with a five-goal-victory on Saturday. Braces from both starter Sheraldo Becker and the later subbed on Sven Michel made it appear as if the visiting Eisernen could seemingly score goals at will. Some stats told a slightly different tale. Heavily defeated opponents FC Schalke 04 won more of the direct duels and even had upwards of 60 percent possession.


Union were able to capitalize on their chances, something FCU boss Oliver Ruhnert attributed somewhat to a poor performance from S04 #1 Alexander Schwolow.

"Almost every shot was a goal," Ruhnert said after the full-time whistle, "Schwolow couldn't actually hold a ball properly."

Following that statement, Ruhnert did acknowledge that his team were lucky to net some of their goals at critical times. Janik Haberer's 3-1 thumper at 45+3 and Becker's 4-1 one minute after the restart effectively broke the back of the hosts. Haberer himself acknowledged afterwards that he felty fortunate to have tallied.

"The course of the game just broke for us," Haberer noted afterwards, "Schalke could have also also taken the lead. I'm incredibly happy [about my goal], it being something I've tried before [without success]."

Ruhnert concurred with his attacker.


"In the end, we were also simply the luckier team," the administrator said, "Schalke did well for a long time."

Head-coach Urs Fischer also made sure to stress the same angle.

"It will be important to classify this result correctly," Fischer said post-match, "The 3-1 lead at the break was rather lucky, Schalke did better than us in the the first half. They were more aggressive and more agile than us.

"After 4-1 the game really went on a one way path," Fischer continued, "In the end, the final scoreline was too high."


More about the match

More about the teams

Bundesliga News

Fantasy Football

Tactics Talk

Editor's picks

Profiles

Turn back time