Rani Khedira seals Union Berlin’s first victory of 2026 with win over Leverkusen | OneFootball

The game had a frantic start with Derrick Köhn nearly putting Andrej Ilić through in goal before a yellow card for Stanley Nsoki with only three minutes on the clock. However, the rest of the first-half was hardly entertaining, which fits Steffen Baumgart’s team perfectly.

Despite losing Janik Haberer to an injury in the tenth minute, they managed to limit the visitors to half-chances. And they scored after a brilliant linkup play between Aljoscha Kemlein and Rani Khedira in the 28th minute. The Bundesliga veteran scored five goals in a season for the very first time.

Kemlein’s chipped pass was converted by Khedira as the 32-year-old lobbed Janis Blaswich in Leverkusen’s goal. Former Union Berlin midfielder Robert Andrich was easily beaten by Khedira before the goal, and he was also at fault when András Schafer was allowed to try his luck less than five minutes later.

Leverkusen were short on ideas with Alejandro Grimaldo’s free-kicks lacking the usual precision, while Ibrahima Maza’s attempt at finding pockets of space was unsuccessful. Both the Algerian and Malik Tillman started the second-half by asserting their influence in the game, although the Champions League hopefuls were unable to test Frederik Rønnow until the 75th minute.

Leverkusen’s substitutes – Patrick Schick, Ernest Poku, and Jonas Hofmann – improved the attack in the final 20 minutes. The Champions League hero had the best chance early in injury-time, but his free header from Maza's delivery uncharacteristically missed the target.

Eventually, the hosts held on to their slender lead to record a first win since the turn of the year. Leverkusen, who collected ten points from the last four league games, suffered their third defeat of 2026.

Leverkusen will hope to seal their place in the Champions League Round of 16 when they host Olympiacos on Tuesday before three Bundesliga games in the space of eight days. Union Berlin’s next assignments would be facing two bottom-half teams in Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen.