Union travel to Darmstadt

On Saturday, 26.08.2023, 1. FC Union Berlin will play their first away match of the season when they face SV Darmstadt 98, a team only promoted to the Bundesliga last season. Kick-off at the Stadion am Böllenfalltor is at 15:30.

The opponents

Under head coach Torsten Lieberknecht, Darmstadt finally returned to the Bundesliga this season after a six-year absence. The foundations of their ultimate promotion were laid in a strong first half of the season, which saw the Lilien top at Christmas, which they followed with a run of four wins on the bounce. Promotion was mathematically certain after 33 games, and a 1-0 home win against 1. FC Magdeburg.

In the Summer, Lieberknecht strengthened his team with central defender Christoph Klarer (Fortuna Düsseldorf), midfielder Fabian Nürnberger (1. FC Nürnberg) and striker Luca Pfeiffer, who was loaned from VfB Stuttgart. The goal is clear, to stay in the league, which SVD last managed in the Bundesliga in 2015/16, but they have lost some key players in defender, Patrick Pfeiffer and striker Philip Tietz, both of whom moved to VfB Stuttgart.

The biggest game of their pre-season was undoubtedly the friendly against Liverpool in Preston, which they ultimately ended up losing 3-1. The start of Darmstadt’s season has also been far from successful. They were eliminated in the first round of the DFB Pokal against Regionalliga side FC Homburg when they lost 3-0 at home, following that with a 1-0 loss to neighbours Eintracht Frankfurt.

The direct comparison

Union and Darmstadt have met six times, with the balance resting in favour of the Hessians so far. Darmstadt have won three and drawn two. Union’s only victory came in the 2018/19 promotion season.

Union news

András Schäfer, Lucas Tousart, Rani Khedira, Janik Haberer and Laurenz Dehl are not available on Saturday. 

Quotes before the match

“Darmstadt did not start the season in the best possible way, but showed a good performance last week in Frankfurt despite the narrow defeat. They are very compact are organised, are good on the break and are dangerous when it comes to set pieces. For us, it will be showing ourselves on the pitch and pushing ourselves to the limit for ninety minutes,” said Union head coach Urs Fischer ahead of the match.

Service info

Around 1600 Unioners will support their team in Darmstadt. Tickets for the guest block are no longer available. The match will be broadcast live on Sky. There will also be an audio stream on rbb24 Inforadio and rbb24.de. As usual, Union will also provide information about the match via the club’s own live ticker as well as on twitter in English @fcunion_en and Spanish @fcunion_es.