Wolves jokers sting at lightning speed
Union Berlin no longer wins in the Bundesliga
03/12/2023 9:29 p.m
Union Berlin gambled away a win at feared opponents VfL Wolfsburg, but moved back up to fourth place in the Champions League. Coach Urs Fischer’s team managed to win a point in the Volkswagen Arena on the fourth attempt. Nevertheless, the team seems to be a little out of breath.
Union Berlin is slowly saying goodbye to the Bundesliga championship race. The 1:1 (0:0) at VfL Wolfsburg was the fourth league game in a row without a win. The surprise team this season is also only in a Champions League place because they have the better goal difference than SC Freiburg, who are fifth in the table with the same points.
In front of 23,554 spectators in the Volkswagen Arena, even one point was rather happy from a Berlin point of view. And that despite the fact that Union took the lead from a penalty by Josip Juranovic in the 72nd minute and Patrick Wimmer, who had just been substituted on, equalized only six minutes before the end (84th) on a pass from Kevin Paredes, who was also substituted on. The Joker didn’t need 150 seconds for their co-production. Viewed over the whole game, VfL missed several good chances, as they did a week ago in the 2-2 win against Frankfurt.
Union Berlin remained without a win in the Bundesliga for the fourth time in a row.
(Photo: dpa)
“We were 1-0 up, so of course we want to get the thing over time. But overall we can be satisfied with the point,” said Union’s Sven Michel. The English weeks were “exhausting, we invested a lot – and we took a point with strong wolves.” Wolfsburg’s Josuha Guilavogui saw things like this: “We wanted to get three points to attack the top six. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. We played well, but should have taken the lead.”
Marmoush misses Huge Chance
In the 15th minute, a free kick from Mattias Svanberg hit the crossbar. Just a minute later, Union goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow parried a shot by Kilian Fischer (16′), who had broken through on his right side. Shortly before half-time, Omar Marmoush ran all by himself towards the Danish keeper (45′). But the Egyptian shot wide of the target. In the second half, the VfL striker missed two more good chances (59th/76th).
Wolfsburg coach Niko Kovac was right in his assessment: The strong VfL actually looked fresher and more dynamic than their opponent because Union was between two Europa League games on Sunday evening. The first game against Saint-Gilloise only took place on Thursday evening in Berlin (3:3). The second leg in Belgium follows exactly one week later.
VfL Wolfsburg is missing a perennial favorite
How great the respect for the Unioners was, was shown by the key personalities in Wolfsburg that evening. For the first time in 23 months, VfL played a Bundesliga game without their suspended captain Maximilian Arnold. However, Kovac did not replace the defensive midfielder from the right position, but deployed two security forces in front of the defense in Guilavogui and Felix Nmecha.
Since Union also likes to condense the center, a predominantly balanced game developed with many duels and little space gains. The only difference between the two teams was: Union only needed a clear chance to score, VfL half a dozen. And so a Wolfsburg pattern emerged again: For the fifth time in the new year, VfL played against one of the top six teams in the Bundesliga. And for the third time they remained without a win despite a clear increase in chances. The wolves missed the hoped-for jump to seventh place, which might be enough for a place in the Conference League at the end of the season.