Matchday in focus: Union Berlin | OneFootball

Eintracht and Union have very different playing styles but both lead the way in terms of creating chances on the break.

Tactics

Union have always been characterised by their physicality, fighting spirit and togetherness, and those traits have come to the fore even more since Steffen Baumgart took over at the Alte Försterei at the start of the year.

In fact, Mainz are the only team to contest more than Union’s average of 108 challenges per game. Head coach Dino Toppmöller is aware of that and is prepared for his players to deal with Union’s man-to-man marking: “We’ll set ourselves up so that everyone who plays is completely fresh and able to go full throttle.”

Nevertheless, the capital club do make minor tactical tweaks. While Baumgart rarely deviates from a five-man backline, he fielded a 5-3-2 formation against Stuttgart and a 5-4-1 against Hoffenheim.

Union’s attacking strategy is usually based on quick transitions, relying on their forward-thinking full-backs and strikers, while their midfielders try to get behind opposition defences with long passes. “We’ll need to focus a lot on winning the second balls when we’re defending,” said Toppmöller.

Absentees

The visitors will be without Andrik Markgraf, Tom Rothe, Livan Burcu, Josip Juranovic and  Stanley Nsoki.

Eintracht must do without Rasmus Kristensen, who is recovering from a muscle injury, and Jessic Ngankam, who suffered fractures of both the tibia and fibula.

Player to watch: Ilyas Ansah

Ilyas Ansah moved to Berlin from SC Paderborn 07 at the start of the season and has scored three goals in his first three Bundesliga outings, setting a new club record. Given that he has only taken four shots, he has the best chance conversion rate in the league. The 20-year-old crowned his debut with a brace in his side’s 2-1 triumph over VfB Stuttgart. Before that…

Youthful Eagles

The average age of Eintracht’s starting line-up across the first three matchdays this season was 24 years and 190 days. No other team was younger, or even had an average age starting with 24.

Attacking with purpose

The Eagles have taken a league-high five shots on goal following counterattacks. Union are second in that particular category with four, while they have also allowed opposing teams a league-high six from such situations, even if none of them have gone in.

Reunions

Robin Koch and Janik Haberer played together at SC Freiburg between 2017 and 2019.

Nathaniel Brown, Can Uzun and Carl Klaus all laced their boots for 1. FC Nürnberg between 2022 and 2024.

Goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow was on Eintracht’s books from 2018 to 2020.