Union Berlin vs. Bayern Munich preview: Leaders out to maintain perfect record | OneFootball

Union Berlin

Having taken 11 points from nine matches, Union are sitting just outside the top half of the table in 10th position. They have proven tough to beat in recent weeks, having lost just one of their previous four competitive matches. 

Steffen Baumgart’s side picked up a 3-1 victory, before they were edged out by Werder Bremen in their last away outing. After battling to an extra-time win over Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB-Pokal, Union went on to play out a 0-0 draw in last Saturday’s home league outing against Freiburg, representing their second goalless affair of the Bundesliga season.

Union have now lost just one of their five top-flight matches at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei this term. However, they will be aware that they will have their work cut out to avoid a second home loss in Saturday’s outing against the in-form league leaders.

Die Eisernen have never claimed a competitive win over Bayern, but they did at least hold the Bavarians to a 1-1 draw in March’s meeting in the capital. On that occasion, Benedict Hollerbach, who joined Mainz in the summer, scored an 84th-minute equaliser to salvage a 1-1 and end a run of four consecutive head-to-head defeats. 

Team News

Union are without the injured duo of Robert Skov and Andrik Markgraf, while Christopher Trimmel is suspended due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Meanwhile, Josip Juranović could feature in the squad following a spell on the sidelines.

Predicted lineup: Rønnow; Haberer, Doekhi, Querfeld, Leite,  Köhn; Skarke, Khedira, Kemlein, Schäfer, Ilić

Bayern Munich

In-form Bayern Munich have won all 16 of their competitive games this season, including nine wins in the Bundesliga. They recorded the most recent league victory in last Saturday’s home clash against Bayer Leverkusen, which saw Serge Gnabry, Nicolas Jackson and Loïc Badé all find the net in a 3-0 victory. That result maintained Bayern’s five-point lead over RB Leipzig and a seven-point cushion to third-placed Borussia Dortmund.

The Bavarians back up their successful outing against Leverkusen with a productive trip to the French capital in midweek. Luis Díaz netted a brace to fire Bayern into a two-goal lead against Paris Saint-Germain, before the former Liverpool forward was given his marching orders for a dangerous challenge on Achraf Hakimi in first-half stoppage time. João Neves pulled a goal back in the 74th minute, but the 10 men of Bayern stood strong for the remainder of the contest to hold on to all three points. 

They will now look to extend their winning start to the season to 17 matches in Saturday’s clash with Union. Bayern will be aiming to make a fast start and produce another dominant first-half display, having scored 18 goals without reply in the first period across their nine Bundesliga games this season. 

In total, Vincent Kompany’s charges have racked up 33 league goals this term, 11 more than the second-best tally of Eintracht Frankfurt. 

Team News

The visitors are unable to call upon Alphonso Davies, Hiroki Ito and Jamal Musiala. Kompany has also confirmed that Raphaël Guerreiro will miss Saturday’s fixture as a precaution. 

Predicted lineup: Neuer; Boey, Upamecano, Kim, Bischof; Kimmich, Goretzka; Olise, Kane, Díaz; Jackson