Dhe newly wed Max Kruse led Union Berlin back on course for the European Cup one and a half weeks after the Conference League was eliminated. Two days after his wedding, the former national player scored the winning goal to make it 1-0 (1-0) at home-strong VfL Bochum.
After a slack with only two wins from eight Bundesliga games, the Berliners climbed back to sixth place. For the promoted Bochum, a strong first half of the season ends with two defeats in a row – with 20 points, the Bundesliga returnee is still fully on target.
Kruse, who married his fiancée Dilaria on Thursday, scored the 1-0 win with a dropkick in front of 13,500 spectators in the Ruhrstadion. The Bochumers, who recently got eleven of 15 possible home points, conceded their second home defeat.
Compared to the 2-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld, Bochum’s coach Thomas Reis had switched to three positions, including returning to the formation of 1-1 in the small Revierderby against Borussia Dortmund in defense. At Union, Kruse was back in the starting line-up after the break in the 0-0 draw against SC Freiburg. In the first Bundesliga duel of the two long-standing second division clubs, the “iron” started more actively and tried to put VfL under pressure. Bochum waited for counter opportunities. This passivity took revenge: After a cross from Bastian Oczipka, Grischa Prömel headed the ball back, Kruse thrashed it into the corner. The hosts tried to put aside their lethargy. But they did not find an effective offensive concept. The long balls on the head of the former Unioner Sebastian Polter often landed on the opponent, without the sick Gerrit Holtmann the pace was lacking on the wing. The five-man chain of the Berliners intercepted all attack attempts confidently. Andreas Luthe, who was between the posts for Bochum for 15 years, was largely unemployed against “his” VfL.
In the first minutes after the break, more happened in front of both goals than in the entire first half: First Erhan Masovic prevented the 0-2 (51st) with a tackle against Taiwo Awoniyi, then Prömel shot the ball over the goal in the Bochum six-yard box (52nd minute) .). Finally, Luthe also had to intervene for the first time in a long-range shot by Konstantinos Stafylidis (53rd). Milos Pantovic had the greatest chance to equalize until then: After a shot by Elvis Rexhbecaj and an uncontrolled Luthe defense, the midfielder missed over the empty goal (59th). In the 80th minute, Pantovic had bad luck with a shot on the lower edge of the crossbar.
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