As participants in the Europa League, the Union Berlin footballers in the Bundesliga have the honor of often playing on Sundays. So far, this dramaturgy has matched the lead in the table, which the Berliners have been able to reliably defend since mid-September, both unexpectedly and perfectly. The best in class often appeared last, and by Sunday the Berliners had coped well with the pressure of knowing the results of their competitors.
They regained the top spot on matchday seven with a Sunday win from Borussia Dortmund, on matchday 9 from SC Freiburg on Sunday evening and on matchday 12 from FC Bayern. But this Sunday everything was different. And how!
The Munich team had also presented the day before, which again meant for the Unioners that they should have won at Bayer Leverkusen in order to defend their lead in the eighth week in a row. But this time they didn’t succeed, even more: Everything failed. They conceded five goals, all in the second half, and lost the place in the sun to Bayern after two months with a major 5-0 (0-0) defeat. “Always look on the bright side of life,” sang the Union fans defiantly.
However, the joy of the Leverkusen team was great. They left the third last place with the win. After six competitive games in a row under new coach Xabi Alonso, they were able to celebrate success again after a month.
It took the break to revive Bayer’s spirits
When the Unioners were top of the table for the first time on September 11 with a 1-0 win in Cologne, substitute Lennart Grill stood in their goal instead of the injured Frederik Rönnow. The fact that the 23-year-old was once again in charge of the Union goal for Rönnow, who was injured again, was all the more remarkable given that he was on loan from Bayer Leverkusen. Maybe that’s why his former colleagues initially had reservations, at least until the break it didn’t get hot for Grill once.
Although Leverkusen played without their injured centre-forward Patrik Schick, neither Moussa Diaby nor Adam Hlozek posed a threat in the first half. “Leverkusen are a team with creativity and wit,” said Union coach Urs Fischer before the game, but Leverkusen’s sense of humor was pitch black at first and needed time to develop on Sunday.
It took the break to revive Bayer’s spirits, but Kerem Demirbay prepared the 1-0 with the first corner of the game. 53 seconds after the restart, Robert Andrich shot in dry and cheered like a tree because of his Union past – namely not at all.
Ten minutes later, the unlucky Grill was responsible for the 0:2 when he lost a pressing shot against Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong far in front of his goal. The ball rebounded to Diaby, who made it 2-0 (56th) and two minutes later made it 3-0. Now the ketchup bottle principle showed up. Bayer had only met sparsely lately, now the pressure was massive within a few minutes. In the 67th minute, Hlozek humiliated the Unioners with the 4:0, in the 76th minute Mitchel Bakker finalized with the goal to make it 5:0.