At Union Berlin, the negative trend continues after Max Kruse left. The third game without the offensive man who switched to Wolfsburg at the end of January was also lost 0-1 (0-0) at Arminia Bielefeld.
With that, the team of football coach Urs Fischer is moving away more and more from the international pitches. In front of 10:00 spectators in the Schüco Arena, Masaya Okugawa (53rd) ensured the narrow victory for Arminia in a hard-fought game, which is well on the way to remaining in the league after only one defeat in the last eight Bundesliga games. For the East Westphalians it was also the first Bundesliga victory over the Berliners on the fourth attempt.
The team of Arminia coach Frank Kramer, who made his debut as Arminia head coach almost a year ago in the 0-0 draw against Union Berlin on March 7, 2021, appeared confident after just one defeat in the past seven games and initially took over the director. Midfielder Patrick Wimmer (11th) missed the possible lead with a cheeky low shot from the edge of the penalty area to the post.
Just four minutes later, East Westphalia were lucky when goalkeeper Stefan Ortega cleared a Union counterattack against Sheraldo Becker in dire need and was also there when Taiwo Awoniyi rebounded.
After the lively start, however, the game increasingly lost its entertainment value. Both teams wore themselves out in hard-fought duels beyond the goal areas and did not put much emphasis on the game.
Read everything about the game here in the live ticker
Both the now declining Bielefeld and the stronger guests didn’t create any chances for a long time. Only a shot by Berlin’s Rani Khedria in the 35th minute was a goal threat.
The sadness only ended shortly before the break. Newcomer Sven Michel (42nd), who was signed from Paderborn at the end of January, completed a Union counterattack worth seeing after a cross from Becker with a header, but just missed the goal.
Just as the Berliners were preparing to take over the direction after the break, Bielefeld struck ice cold and unexpectedly. After a pass from the eye-catching Wimmer, Okugawa hit the far corner with a well-placed low shot and was celebrated by the fans for his eighth goal of the season.
The deficit forced the guests to step up their attacking efforts. So the pressure on the opposing goal grew steadily. But Awoniyi (66th) failed in a promising position by Arminia goalkeeper Ortega.
In the hectic final phase, Arminia switched to counterattacks and came close to making it 2-0 with a long-range shot from Alessandro Schöpf (81st).