Our next opponents: The Irons on course for the Champions League

Position

Last weekend, Union Berlin secured a deserved 1-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach and thereby extended their lead over fifth place to four points. The Irons are third in the table on 55 points. That is just two points less than the previous best return for the club in the Bundesliga from last season. They are on course to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in their history. Although the management are playing it down. "We remain humble," said central defender Robin Knoche. "We'll just see what we can do at home to Leverkusen on Saturday. There are five games to play and we obviously want to achieve maximum success. But we'll see what happens in the end." Perhaps it could be the best finish to a season since promotion to the Bundesliga in 2019. Eleventh, seventh, fifth – the club from Köpenick have improved every year. The An der Alten Försterei Stadium is a fortress with Union unbeaten at home in the last 20 league games.

The 1-0 win in Mönchengladbach, with Sheraldo Becker scoring his ninth goal of the season, was also the seventh away win this term. Only FC Bayern have clocked up one more. "We haven't won away for a while and that makes it even better today," said midfielder Rani Khedira after the match. But the 29-year-old remained modest and did not want to look too far ahead: "We are grateful for every point and nothing else concerns us." And coach Urs Fischer was reserved as usual. "There was great discipline over the ninety minutes, we were compact and mostly very well organised. We didn't give away much at the back and we had our moments up front." These Irons certainly have their feet on the ground. But that has brought them far in the current campaign. They only went out of the DFB Cup in the quarter-finals with a 2-0 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt, they lost out in the Round of 16 in the Europa League against Union Saint-Gilloise (3-3, 0-3). One thing is certain: The team from Köpenick are having another great season.

Personnel

With midfielder Andras Schäfer still ruled out due to a foot injury, Urs Fischer will also have to manage without striker Kevin Behrens in the game against the Werkself after he picked up a fifth yellow card in the win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Behrens recently lined up alongside strike partner Sheraldo Becker five times in succession. Fischer will have to make changes and could play Jordan Siebatcheu from the start. The American has scored four goals to date and provided three assists. Sven Michel could also be an option in attack. In the back three in front of keeper Frederik Rönnow, Paul Jaeckel could return after being suspended for the game against Gladbach. He was replaced there by the Portuguese Diogo Leite. Regular starters are Robin Knoche and Danilho Doekhi.

The positions in the five-man midfield are mainly set. The Croat Josip Juranovic, a winter signing from Celtic, has secured a regular start and in eight appearances has scored twice and provided one assist. Two other players signed in January of this year, Jérôme Roussillon from VfL Wolfsburg and Aissa Laidouni from Ferencváros, have proved to be positive additions to the squad. Roussillon plays on the left flank. The alternative here is Niko Gießelmann. Irreplaceable in the middle of the park are Rani Khedira and Jannik Haberer. Khedira, who has only missed two games this season, recently extended his contract at Union. "Rani is an important member of our squad on and off the pitch," said Oliver Ruhnert, the director of football at Union and he praised the Swabian for his "model commitment and outstanding attitude."

The same applies to Sheraldo Becker. The 28-year-old striker from Suriname is the only Union player this season to appear in all 43 matches. After Bayer 04 player Jeremie Frimpong, he has made the second most sprints in the league. Becker has made 902 and Frimpong 950. The two are level in terms of goals and assists. Becker has scored nine goals and provided six assists, Frimpong has found the back of net eight times and set up seven goals.

Performers

Union Berlin have the best defence in the Bundesliga with just 31 goals conceded. The team under coach Urs Fischer have only conceded eleven goals in this calendar year – the Werkself have conceded 15 goals as the second best defence in 2023. No other team has had as many clean sheets as the Irons (11). "The defence is the basis of our success," said boss of the defence Robin Knoche. "It starts with the strikers and stops with the goalkeeper. Everybody just works for each other. We define ourselves by playing against the ball and that's what marks us out." That style of play equally demands high discipline in defence as well as an enormous amount of running. The numbers reflect that: Urs Fischer's team cover 118.5 kilometres per game. Only FC Köln have a slightly better return (119 kilometres). Moreover, Union have only conceded an average of 4.7 chances per game – here only FC Bayern and RB Leipzig (3.9 each) plus VfL Wolfsburg (4.6) are better.

Another remarkable statistic: The Irons are the team of the second half. If there was a table exclusively made up of the second 45 minutes then Union Berlin would be on top with 52 points ahead of VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund. Just playing around of course. But that shows that the team from Köpenick often find it difficult to get going. Of the eight wins in this calendar year, Union were only in front in the first half in the 2-0 win against Hertha Berlin and the 2-1 victory against Mainz 05. Becker, Behrens and Co. move up a gear in the second half. 28 of their 44 goals have been scored after half-time.

The way the Berlin team score their goals is also interesting: Union are the strongest team on the break in the league (seven goals), they have scored the most goals with headers (12) and the most from corners (10). No wonder that the Irons have the second most goals from set pieces (18) second only to SC Freiburg (21).

Problems

Union have lacked penetration up front recently. Eleven goals in the last ten league matches is not outstanding – the Werkself found the back of the opposition net 23 times in the same period. Union often lack accuracy in the final third. After the disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Bochum two weeks ago, Robin Knoche said: "We made the wrong decisions and that's happened a bit this season. We have to work on that and create clear chances on goal." It remains to be seen how Union will replace the suspended Kevin Behrens who has been outstanding in the past few weeks and has scored the second most goals (seven) after Sheraldo Becker.

Prediction

The Irons will be keen to forget the previous meeting with Bayer 04 and that will definitely provide additional motivation on Saturday. The 5-0 defeat in Leverkusen was the biggest defeat of the season for Union. Incredibly they conceded all five goals in the second half including three in 12 minutes and they were knocked off the top of the table by Bayer 04 on matchday 13. Union approach the forthcoming match against the Werkself with a certain amount of respect. "Of course, we want to make the most of our home advantage," said Robin Knoche, "but we are expecting an opponent with lots of confidence and therefore a very intense match."

The two teams are separated by eight points. Union are definitely looking to be on course for the Champions League and the Irons are still in with a chance of the title given there is a five point gap to league leaders Borussia Dortmund. Neither of the two targets are openly discussed at the Alte Försterei. What coach Urs Fischer says goes: "I've clearly said that we want to qualify for Europe for the third time in succession." Union Berlin should certainly achieve that.