Bundesliga in the evening
After fan protests: Union Berlin celebrates its first victory under Eta
Updated May 10, 2026 – 9:38 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The 33rd Bundesliga matchday is complete. At the end of the Sunday evening game, Union Berlin won the duel in Mainz. This makes for a first.
The game was overshadowed in the first half by protests from Union Berlin fans. They protested against the late kick-off times on Sunday.
For Eta, the game was a meeting with her old companion; she had once sat in on the Union Berlin professional team during the Fischer era. “That’s why I’m looking forward to seeing him again at the weekend,” she said beforehand. Despite all the friendship and the clarified position in the table, it is still about sport – and for the first time ever they relied on a four-man defense instead of a three-man defense.
But this was hardly required at first, rather the Union appeared to be offensive. Robin Zentner, who returned to the Mainz goal after a month-long injury break, parried a header from Ilic with an outstanding reflex (9th). As a result, the Köpenickers remained the slightly better team in a disjointed game, but things were rarely compelling in the final third. It took a short corner to take the lead, Ilic nodded in a cross from Aljoscha Kemlein.
Mainz’s only chance in the first half came from Kaishu Sano with an individual action shortly before the half-time whistle (45th + 10). This was the signal for significantly more attacking spirit in the second half, ex-Union player Becker sank a cross from Paul Nebel out of the air with his left. Even after that, the Fischer team stayed on the trigger and created some good opportunities. In one of the few counterattacks, Ilic failed to hit the crossbar (84′). Shortly afterwards, Burke and Juranovic scored.
A protest by Berlin supporters caused a stir, throwing tennis balls onto the lawn in the first half and causing an interruption of several minutes. They were protesting against the scheduling of games on Sundays this season.
