RB Leipzig vs. Union Berlin preview: Champions League hopefuls host Eta’s Union
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RB Leipzig hope for their fifth win in a row when they host Union Berlin in the opening game of matchday 31. The visitors produced a promising performance in Marie-Louise Eta’s historic debut last week, but they only picked up one point from the last four games.
RB Leipzig
Last week’s 3-1 win in Frankfurt stretched RB Leipzig’s winning streak to four games. Yan Diomande scored for the fourth time against Eintracht Frankfurt as he continued his excellent debut season in Germany.
With Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen losing on matchday 30, Ole Werner’s side boosted their hopes of getting back to Champions League football. The five-point gap with second-placed Borussia Dortmund could even be reversed in the remaining four rounds.
Team News
Werner confirmed David Raum and Castello Lukeba will be unavailable for Friday’s game in his pre-match press conference. Leipzig’s boss also announced Maarten Vandevoordt will stay as the starting goalkeeper despite Péter Gulácsi’s return from injury. Willi Orban and Xavier Schlager are back from injury and suspension, respectively.
Union Berlin
Eta was the headline maker of the last matchday as she became the first female to coach in one of Europe’s top-five leagues. However, Union Berlin couldn’t end their winless run as a defeat to VfL Wolfsburg keeping them in the discussion of the relegation fight.
A win on Friday could be enough to secure their spot for next season’s Bundesliga as it will momentarily open a nine-point gap between them and the relegation playoff spot before St. Pauli’s trip to bottom-placed Heidenheim.
Team News
There is a chance of a similar XI from Eta as Union Berlin produced a strong performance despite the defeat to Wolfsburg. Derrick Köhn is one of the strongest candidates to regain his spot as a wingback.
Head-to-Head
Union Berlin were scoreless in their last four meetings against RB Leipzig before the reverse fixture this season. Second-half goals from Oliver Burke and Illas Ansah secured a 2-1 win for the then-Union coach Steffen Baumgart.
Predicted Lineups
Leipzig: Vandevoordt; Baku, Klostermann, Bitshiabu, Finkgräfe; Seiwald; Schlager, Baumgartner ©; Diomande, Romulo, Nusa
Union: Rönnow; Doekhi, Querfeld, Diogo Leite; Trimmel ©, Khedira, Kemlein, Rothe; Burke, Ansah; Ilić
