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Union goal scorer to 1-0, Andreas Voglsammer, is celebrated by his teammates
Photo:
Soren Stache / dpa
The number one in Berlin is not only in the League Union, the Irons also prevailed in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup in a duel against Hertha.
The fact that Freiburg's high flight continues in both competitions was also due to ex-TSG professional Vincenzo Grifo in the win against Hoffenheim.
Union Berlin is fifth in the Bundesliga, city rivals Hertha BSC is only thirteenth.
This balance of power should also be reflected in the cup duel between the two capital clubs: In an eventful, hard-fought derby, Union took the lead early on after Andreas Voglsammer artistically took a cross from Max Kruse out of the air and put it past Alexander Schwolow into the goal (11th minute). .
Then Hertha was able to thank the video assistant for not being further behind: Voglsammer was involved again, Niklas Stark fended off his cross with his extended arm.
Referee Deniz Aytekin pointed to the point, but took the penalty back after VAR intervention: Voglsammer had previously been offside (32').
Union is also lucky with VAR
So the game stayed tight. Gradually, Tayfun Korkut's team got into the game better, Suat Serdar even shot the ball into the Union goal from the turn - video evidence was used here too, and a previous offside position made the scene explosive (45. +2).
After the break, fast-paced Unioner Levin Öztunali got through on the right, and Stark cleared his sharp cross into his own goal (50').
Although Hertha immediately reduced Serdar's goal from a tight angle (54'), it took Union even less time to respond again: just a minute later, a free-kick crossed from the half-field to Robin Knoche, who had a lot of space and made it 3-1 (55th).
Serdar's second goal seconds before the final whistle came too late to make the game exciting again.
The southern derby in the DFB Cup ended with a safe 4:1 (2:0) victory for SC Freiburg at TSG Hoffenheim.
In a respectable and fast-paced game in front of just 500 spectators, Freiburg took the lead early on: Ex-TSG player Grifo flicked into the far corner after a pass from Lukas Höler (10').
Höler could have increased early, but chased the ball over the goal with a direct acceptance (23').
Hoffenheim became more active after that, but TSG conceded another goal in the first small urge phase: Ihlas Bebou got the ball in the penalty area.
Grifo once again turned the penalty kick into the top left corner (36').
Freiburg no longer lets Hoffenheim come into play
At the beginning of the second half, Hoffenheim coach Sebastian Hoeneß brought on Andrej Kramaric.
With a shot from the left, the Croatian forced SC defender Nico Schlotterbeck to score an own goal - the goal to make it 2-1 (52nd).
But Freiburg also got the upper hand in the end because they found the right answer straight away: Just three minutes later, Kevin Schade made it 3-1 after a cross from Ermedin Demirovic (55 ').
Freiburg then successfully defended itself against the attacking waves of Hoffeheim and switched to counterattacking.
That worked promptly in a game in which the sixth-placed Bundesliga player managed almost everything: A quick counterattack via Lukas Kübler and a cross from Höler was slotted in by Demirovic at the level of the left post: 4:1 (68th).
In just twenty minutes after that, Hoffenheim was no longer able to pull off the miracle.
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