Union Berlin vs. Bayer Leverkusen preview: Champions targeting away day success

Union Berlin

Union are sitting in 10th position after winning four, drawing four and losing three of their 11 league matches. Die Eisernen are currently experiencing a poor run of form, having gone four league games without a win since beating Holstein Kiel on October 20. They played out home draws against Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg on either side of a narrow away loss against Bayern Munich. 

Bo Svensson’s side fell to another away defeat in last Saturday’s meeting with Wolfsburg. Ridle Baku’s 71st-minute strike proved enough to condemn Union to a 1-0 defeat as they failed to trouble the scorers in a third consecutive Bundesliga outing. 

While they have endured a spell of poor results, Union will still fancy their chances of taking something from Saturday’s fixture, having avoided defeat in all five of their home league games this season (W3, D2). The hosts have proven to be a tough team to break down at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei, conceding just three goals across their five Bundesliga home matches.

Team News

The hosts are expected to be without the services of Yannic Stein and Andrej Ilić.

Bayer Leverkusen

Leverkusen have work to do if they are to retain their Bundesliga title, with Xabi Alonso’s side sitting in fourth place and nine points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich. They recently experienced a run of three consecutive league draws, before they returned to winning ways in last Saturday’s home meeting with Heidenheim. Die Werkself showed great character to fight back from two goals down to record a 5-2 victory thanks to a Patrik Schick hat-trick as well as goals from Exequiel Palacios and Granit Xhaka.

They went on to register five more goals in Tuesday’s Champions League clash against Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg. Florian Wirtz netted a brace alongside goals from Álex Grimaldo and Aleix García to secure a commanding 5-0 victory, leaving Leverkusen in sixth place in the league phase.

After competing in back-to-back home matches, Leverkusen will now head on their travels for Saturday’s league meeting with Union. The visitors are one of three teams yet to lose a Bundesliga away game this season, but while they have proven to be tough to beat on the road, they have had to settle for draws in each of their previous three away league matches. As a result, they are hoping to record their first away victory since cruising to a 4-1 win over Hoffenheim on September 14.

Team News

Alonso is having to cope without the services of Victor Boniface, Jonas Hofmann, Amine Adli, Jeanuël Belocian and Martin Terrier.