It was always going to be aesthetics and so it proved. The importance of the eighth top-flight derby between Hertha and Union was everywhere you looked, not least in the sold-out stands of the Olympiastadion, such a contrast to the relatively paltry turnout for Wednesday’s humiliating hammering for Hertha at the hands of Wolfsburg.
The problem was that, even at such an early stage of this as an elite-level rivalry, we already knew which way this was going and so it proved. Hertha’s coach, Sandro Schwarz, suggested before the game the result didn’t matter as much as the performance, trying to take any unnecessary drama out of the moment, which succeeded and failed at the same time.
