The Werkself Come to Köpenick

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28 January 2024, 00:15 yayınlandı

On the Bundesliga’s 30^th matchday, 1. FC Union Berlin will meet Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday, 29.04.2023. Kick off between the league’s third and sixth placed sides at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei at 15:30.

The lie of the land

With a 1-0 victory, Union were able to end their streak of three winless games last Sunday evening in Mönchengladbach, picking up three important points as they aim for a place in European competition for the third year in a row.

Head coach Xabi Alonso’s team, meanwhile, are enjoying the better half of a somewhat turbulent season. Following a disappointing start, leading to the dismissal of Gerardo Seoane, the Werkself got back on track and have now climbed inexorably to sixth place in the table.

The opponents

Bayer are currently on a 13-game unbeaten streak. In both the Bundesliga and the UEFA Europa League, the Leverkusen team have gone from success to success, with only three draws during this tiime. While they still have a theoretical chance of participating in next season’s UEFA Champions League next season, they also remain the last German team to be represented in Europe. In the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, they defeated a team Union know all too well, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, and will meet AS Roma in the semi-finals.

The reunions

Two players will have a reunion with old acquaintances this weekend. Robert Andrich played a total of 66 games for Union from 2019 to 2021, scoring nine times with a further six assists and proving a vital part to Union’s success in their first two seasons in the Bundesliga.

Union goalkeeper Lennart Grill will also be meeting his former team mates on Saturday. The former U-21 international came to Berlin at the start of the season having played a total of five games for Leverkusen.

The personnel

Kevin Behrens is suspended, following his 5th yellow card. But apart from him, the entire squad is available.

The coach’s views ahead of the game

“Bayer Leverkusen are a team in very good form, if not the best team in the league at the moment and their series of 13 games without defeat, and the few goals conceded speak for themselves,” said Urs Fischer during his press conference on Thursday afternoon. “As a team they are stable and very disciplined. They have many players who can make the difference as well as enormous speed going forwards. All in all, it will be a very demanding task for us and we will have to be very concentrated.”

Service info

The game on saturday is already sold out.

The match will be broadcast live on Sky and, as usual, Union will also provide information on the match on the club’s own live ticker, as well as in English on Twitter. In addition, there will be an audio stream on rbb24 Inforadio and on rbb24.de.