In the first tie of the DFB Pokal quarter-finals, 1. FC Union Berlin will travel to play Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday, 04.04.2023. Kick off at Deutsche Bank Park is at 6pm.
The lie of the land
Union and their hosts have hardly had time to catch breath since their last encounter on the 25th matchday of the Bundesliga season, which took place only just before the recent international break. Then, they faced each other at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei and just like in the previous encounter in October last year, the spoils went to the home team. Union winning 2-0 against Oliver Glasner’s team.
While this ended Union’s run of five games without a win, Frankfurt’s own negative record continued, and continues to do so still when looking at their 1-1 draw against VfL Bochum at the weekend.
The opponents
SGE have now gone seven games without a win. In addition to their elimination from the Champions League against SSC Napoli (0-2 and 0-3), there have been three draws in the league against Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and Bochum. In addition to the aforementioned defeat in Köpenick, they also faced a similar fate in Leipzig, losing 2-1 away from home. The main bright spot from their point of view, however, is that, despite this run, they have managed to hold on to 6th spot in the table.
The reunions
Christopher Lenz and Frederik Rönnow will meet old friends on Tuesday. Lenz, who scored one goal and made eight assists for Union between 2016 and 2021, now plays on his familar left hand side in Frankfurt. Union’s Danish number one, meanwhile, played 21 games for Eintracht before moving to the capital.
The personnel
András Schäfer is still not ready to return to action and a decision on Frederik Rönnow’s availability will be made on Tuesday. Niko Giesselmann is suspended after his yellow card against VfL Wolfsburg.
The coaches’ views ahead of the game
“The last duel against Eintracht was not long ago, and that time we were very lucky,” said Union’s head coach Urs Fischer in his press conference on Monday afternoon. “The 90 minutes showed the quality of Frankfurt. They like to lure the opponent in, get quickly into those gaps and in behind the back line, but they are also not afraid of a long ball. Especially when attacking, they have some players with a lot of quality who can decide a game on their own. So we have to be compact and work together, and that wasn’t always the case in the game a fortnight ago.”
Meanwhile Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner also said he expects a close battle. “We have respect for Union and also for the way they play football. Nevertheless, we have to believe in ourselves to win this game. There are characteristics and qualities in our game that won’t make it so easy for Union. But that’s just as true the other way round. That’s why I’m expecting a heated and intense game, and one that we’re all really looking forward to.”
Service info
2800 Unioners will accompany the 1. FC Union Berlin team to Germany’s fifth largest city, tips for visiting the stadium can be found here.
ZDF and Sky will be broadcasting the match live, while rbb24 Inforadio and rbb24.de will be providing audio streams. As usual, Union will also provide information on the match in the club’s own live ticker as well as in English on twitter.