After the official introduction of the players as well as the coaching and support staff of the men's professional team of 1. FC Union Berlin, the first dangerous scene of the afternoon belonged to the hosts: Captain Christopher Trimmel delivered a free kick from the halfway line into the penalty area, where his compatriot Leopold Querfeld headed the ball just over the goal of the guests (5.).

The Austrian central defender made another offensive appearance around ten minutes later. After a throw-in from Trimmel to Andrés Schäfer, the Hungarian played the ball into the center, where Querfeld jumped high and directed his header just a few centimeters past the right post. Olympiakos Piraeus also made their presence felt in the final third: Following a free kick and an acrobatic bicycle-kick assist, Ayoub El Kaabi had a header attempt. Union's goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow reacted quickly, stretched out, and deflected the ball over the crossbar (18.).

Afterward, both the Eisernen and the guests from the Greek port city created nearly identical chances. In the 30th minute, Trimmel took a ball from outside the box on the volley, but sent his shot over the goal. Five minutes later, Santiago Hezze on the opposite side also tried a volley from distance – his attempt also flew over the bar.

Shortly before the halftime whistle, Rönnow had another chance to shine and receive applause from the Union fans: First, he calmly and patiently neutralized a one-on-one duel against El Kaabi, before just seconds later confidently intercepting a cross from Gelson Martins (42.). Shortly thereafter, the referee called for halftime.

The second half initially took a longer run-up with summer temperatures. It was only ten minutes after the restart that Olympiakos launched a counter-attack with Gelson Martins on the right flank, but the substituted Alex Král acted cleverly in the duel, positioning his body in between and expertly intercepting the quick winger.

In the following minutes, the match remained disjointed. Smaller interruptions repeatedly led to pauses in play, and when it became dangerous, it was mostly due to crosses from the Eisernen into the penalty area – yet none of these balls found their way to the Greek goal (67.).

Then the guests struck coldly: The Portuguese Leonel Lima Silva Machada, known as Chiquinho, was played in at the edge of the penalty area, turned, and fired a powerful shot into the upper left corner – Rönnow had no chance to save (74.). Not even 180 seconds later, the Eisernen combined beautifully into the penalty area of the Greeks, but Andrej Ilić didn’t connect properly with the ball, allowing the Olympiakos goalkeeper to easily make the save.

Shortly after his substitution, László Bénes also had the equalizer on his foot. The Slovakian international tried to curl the ball into the near corner with his left foot, but sent his shot into the side netting (81.). The referee then ended the last hard test for the Eisernen with a score of 0-1.

“We are actually doing well, keeping the game balanced, and then there comes a situation where we are not quite consistent. And then it happens that such a shot goes in. We lose the game, but it is not yet the phase where the results count,” summarized Ilyas Ansah after the final whistle.

“Scoring goals is part of playing football, and you can always concede one at the back. So, I am still far from a trauma. The game itself was similar to the previous ones. We show a lot of what makes up our play, we just need to assert ourselves more in front and take our chances,” said head coach Steffen Baumgart after the clash.