1. FC Union Berlin also missed out on the first Champions League win in club history against SSC Napoli and extended the sporting crisis in Köpenick with another defeat. The capital city lost 0-1 (0-0) against the Italian champions in the red-lit Olympic Stadium on Tuesday and suffered their ninth defeat in a row. The Iron Men are still bottom of the table in Group C and only have a slim chance of overwintering in the European Cup.
Giacomo Raspadori (65th minute) shot the mostly harmless Italians to victory in front of around 72,000 spectators – and second place behind Real Madrid. Union was the better team for long stretches, but, as was the case recently in the Bundesliga, they didn’t take advantage of their chances.
In the third Champions League game, coach Urs Fischer was able to rely on national player Robin Gosens, who was still injured on Monday. Italy expert Leonardo Bonucci, on the other hand, took a seat on the bench – and was anything but happy about it, as expert Fabrizio Romano claims to have found out during the game. Accordingly, Bonucci, who recently had to vacate the starting position for defense chief Robin Knoche in the Bundesliga, would like to talk to Fischer about his situation on Wednesday.
The game started slowly. The flow of the game was lacking, bad passes and small fouls characterized the opening minutes in which both teams felt each other out in midfield. Union were rarely able to combine near the opponent’s penalty area after winning the ball and tried long crosses from the wing. Since Kevin Behrens, who was strong in the air, sat on the bench for a long time, the crosses found no takers. The Berliners were secure at the back and didn’t allow anything to happen with the recovered bone in the first half.
Janik Haberer sent the red Union supporters into ecstasy out of nowhere in the 24th minute, but referee Irfan Peljto immediately canceled the 29-year-old’s goal. David Fofana was offside when Christopher Trimmel passed. The missed goal spurred Union on. Fueled by their own supporters, the hosts started a short but unsuccessful period of pressure. The shots from Brenden Aaronson (30th/38th) and Fofana (37th) were too imprecise.
Immediately after the break, things became dangerous for the first time in Union’s penalty area. Naples’ dribbling artist Chwitscha Kwarazchelia (50′) danced past Trimmel and Diogo Leite and was only denied by Knoche’s leg.
The game now became rougher and both teams were much more aggressive in their duels. Union waited for the counterattack and managed to win a lot of the balls in their own half. However, as in the past few weeks, there was a lack of accuracy in the forward play.
The guests, however, used their second chance to take the lead. After a failed attempt by Leite to clear the ball, the ball ended up in the hands of the Italians, who strolled through the penalty area as if in a training game. Raspadori just had to push in from close range.
Naples managed the lead cleverly and played the ball easily through their own ranks. Union ran after in vain. A final header from Knoche (80′) landed just wide of the post.
In the cauldron of Istanbul, an ultimately ice-cold FC Bayern continued its record series in the Champions League. 100 million purchase Harry Kane (73rd minute) and Jamal Musiala (79th) made the Munich team celebrate 3-1 (1-1) and the extended lead in the league table in Europe’s premier football league on Tuesday evening after a lot of effort against Galatasaray. After Kingsley Coman (8th) silenced the deafening cheering of the fans in Rams Park early, but only for a short time, the Turkish champions turned up the heat not only with Mauro Icardi’s cheeky penalty kick (30th).
When Noussair Mazraoui returned to the Bayern starting line-up, coach Thomas Tuchel was happy that the hosts did not reward themselves for their increased chances in an emotional performance with a 2-1 win. Sven Ulreich distinguished himself several times in what was probably his last game in the Munich goal. The comeback of captain Manuel Neuer, who has been injured for a long time, is scheduled for Saturday. The Munich team have been unbeaten in 37 group games and have won all of their last 16 games.
Tuchel had warned about an “aggressive team” – and the Munich coach was right. Spurred on by the 50,000 hot-blooded fans, Galatasaray acted with extremely high pressing and a lot of power that Bayern had never experienced before this season. Galatasaray, who had already duped English record champions Manchester United at Old Trafford (3-2), repeatedly managed to win the ball quickly and created an unusually large number of scoring chances for Bayern.
The Munich four-man defense chain was under constant pressure from the attacking efforts of Icardi and Co. and acted anything but securely. That’s how it went from 0 to 100 for right-back Mazraoui, who was recently injured, when he returned to the Bayern team, which sometimes caused him problems. The Moroccan recently caused a stir when he shared a video on social networks wishing the Palestinians a victory in the conflict with Israel. After his return from the national team, FC Bayern had “a detailed and clarifying conversation” with him last week, but this did not silence the critical voices.
The game actually started perfectly for the Munich team, who were struggling with personnel – national player Leon Goretzka was also recently sidelined (broken metacarpal). With the first attack, Coman scored the opening goal after a pass from Leroy Sané, who, however, also benefited from a positional error by Kazimcan Karatas.
The Munich Gate was only a short-term mood killer in the Istanbul cauldron. In return, Ulreich was forced to make a save when Kerem Aktürkoglu shot (9th). The 35-year-old, who will probably have to make way for Neuer on Saturday against Darmstadt, was given more work than he would have liked. Two minutes later, Ulreich sent a cross forward, but Aktürkoglu did not accept the gift.
And it continued in only one direction. After a shot from Lucas Torreira just over the goal (24′), the luck ran out. Joshua Kimmich fouled Icardi in the penalty area, the Argentine took the penalty himself and converted very coolly with a Panenka penalty. The goalscorer, who had already scored ten times in nine games in the league, was in danger of missing out before the game with an ankle injury, but there was no sign of it on the pitch. According to broadcaster Prime Video, a noise level of 132 decibels was measured in the stadium during the goal, which was in the health-endangering range.
Icardi after an unnecessary loss of the ball by Kimmich (45th 1) and previously Aktürkoglu (38th) had further top chances. At halftime, 16:3 shots on goal and 57 percent of ball possession documented the unusual balance of power in favor of the Turks.
It couldn’t go on like this, it couldn’t. The Bayerns created more relief in the second half – and almost immediately took the lead again. But Sané missed a pass from Coman in a promising position (50th).
The Munich team gained more control of the game and became more and more dangerous. Goalkeeper Fernando Muslera (63′) parried a shot from Sané, but he was powerless against superstar Kane. The English national team captain, who had not been seen for a long time, finally showed his goalscoring qualities after an assist from Musiala. There was no longer any sign of the hosts’ power football; instead, Musiala made the decision.
