Bundesliga 14th matchday
Union celebrates liberation against Gladbach
Status: 09.12.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
1. FC Union wins against Borussia Mönchengladbach and celebrates a breakthrough. VfL Wolfsburg’s crisis is getting worse and Heidenheim wins a surprisingly entertaining promotion duel. The 14th matchday of the Bundesliga at a glance.
Union Berlin ended its dramatic winless streak on coach Nenad Bjelica’s Bundesliga debut. After 16 games without any success, the Iron team beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 (1-0) and sent a strong signal in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga with a courageous performance.
Kevin Volland (23rd minute) with a hand penalty, Benedict Hollerbach (50th) and Mikkel Kaufmann (75th) with their first Union goals scored the goals for the dominant hosts in the sold-out stadium at the Alte Försterei with 22,012 spectators. Alassane Pléa (77th) could only shorten the score for Borussia.
Under new coach Bjelica, Union left last place in the Bundesliga, at least for one night. The people of Köpenick could hardly have celebrated a better mood for the last Champions League game on Tuesday against the great Real Madrid. The Gladbachers were unable to carry the momentum from the cup win against VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday and remained winless in their fourth league away game in a row. Six points ahead of Union is not a big cushion.
Union Berlin triumphs against Gladbach and celebrates another win after 16 games without a win
Quelle: Getty Images/Reinaldo Coddou H.
Constantly put pressure on, play offensively. These were Bjelica’s instructions to his team. After three and a half months of maximum sadness, that sounded like almost foolhardy wishful thinking. But, lo and behold. After 120 minutes of the cup, Gladbach played along dutifully and tiredly, and the Eisernen showed by far their best first half since those August days, when Union were at the top of the table after two match days under long-term coach Urs Fischer.
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After a cross from Robin Gosens, Volland Luca Netz headed the ball from behind onto his outstretched arm. Volland safely converted the penalty to take the lead – the first for Union in the Alte Försterei since that 4-1 win against Mainz 105 days ago. The score was good for the team. Borussia was allowed practically nothing.
20 seconds had been played in the second half when Union launched the first counterattack. The toe of Gladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas prevented the second Union goal when Volland finished. Hollerbach then did that with a tight low shot from the second row. The cheering images documented the huge relief. Right in the middle of the crowd of players: coach Bjelica. Another summer transfer came in Kaufmann, who was unable to make any impact under Fischer. Pléa’s goal didn’t change anything about the first Union party since August.
Werder Bremen – FC Augsburg 2-0
Werder Bremen has achieved the longed-for break out of the relegation battle. With the deserved 2-0 (1-0), the Hanseatic League ended FC Augsburg’s winning streak of six games without defeat and caused a collective sigh of relief among their fans.
With their headers, Niklas Stark (39th) and Marvin Ducksch (65th) led Bremen to their first win after four games, including two recent defeats. Their success gave them some breathing room out of the danger zone. Coach Jess Thorup’s disappointing guest team in Bremen is still in the middle of the table despite the defeat after their recent series of successes.
VfL Wolfsburg – SC Freiburg 0:1
1. FC Heidenheim – Darmstadt 98 3:2
The impressive strength after dead balls gave 1. FC Heidenheim an important victory on the way to staying in the Bundesliga. In the 3:2 (1:0) win against SV Darmstadt 98, all FCH goals came from set pieces taken by Jan-Niklas Beste. With their fourth win this season, coach Frank Schmidt’s team extends their lead over the Lilies to five points.
In a hard-fought duel between the two promoted teams, the strong FCH, who scored 13 of their 14 points at home, celebrated after goals from Jan Schöppner (42nd minute) and captain Patrick Mainka (69th/71st minute). In the meantime, Darmstadt had turned the game around. First Tim Skarke equalized at his old stomping ground (52′), then the guests benefited from an own goal from Lennard Maloney (60′).
