Since taking over the playing licence from FF USV Jena for the 2020/21 season, FC Carl Zeiss Jena have become a yo-yo team. While the predecessor club played continuously in the top flight from 2008 to 2018 and returned to the Bundesliga for one year in 2019/20, their merger with FC Carl Zeiss Jena came with relegation back to the 2. Liga.

The club bounced back immediately but were relegated again in 2022 with only five points. Two years later, they managed to return to the Bundesliga, staying up for the first time since 2017. However, with ten points and seven goals, Jena, in eleventh place, benefited from the league’s expansion to 14 teams, which meant that there was only one team relegated.

In the summer, Jena strengthened their squad with the addition of Nuremberg's promotion-winning goalkeeper Hannah Etzold, who put in a strong performance in the draw with Bayern. New signings Steffi Schmied (RasenBallsport Leipzig II), Rieke Tietz and Isabella Jaron (both SCR Altach) and Suya Haering (1. FFC Turbine Potsdam) have also played in all three games so far this season. In Luca Birkholz, however, they lost a key player and the only woman in the squad to score two goals last season.

At just 26 years of age, head coach Florian Kästner is the youngest coach in the Bundesliga. He has been coaching the women's team since 2023, leading them to promotion in his debut season and securing their place in the league last year.

There has not yet been a competitive match between the two teams, though Jena came out on top in the two friendlies played in the summer of 2022 and in January 2023. In the first encounter, Union lost 4-0 away before, in the second game, they led 3-1 until the 78th minute but ultimately lost 4-3

For Anna Weiß, the match means a return to a beloved stomping ground. The full-back moved to FF USV Jena in 2014 at the age of 16 and made her Bundesliga debut there a year later. After the licence takeover, she played for FC Carl Zeiss from 2020 before joining 1. FC Union Berlin in 2023 after a total of nine years with 53 Bundesliga and 85 second division appearances.

FC Carl Zeiss Jena's squad also includes two players who can look back on earlier times in Union jerseys, Gwen Mummert and Josephine Bonsu. Mummert moved up from the club's U17s to the first team in 2016, playing 21 games in two years before moving to the USA to study. Bonsu also played for Union in her youth and made a total of 29 Regionalliga appearances between 2018 and 2021, scoring 13 goals. After a detour via Türkiyemspor, she came to Jena in 2022 and has since developed into a Ghanaian international.

Union will have to do without the services of Jenny Hipp, Judith Steinert, Leonie Köster, Hannah Eurlings and Fatma Şakar.

"Jena are a very disciplined team who always manage to close down space quickly and lie in wait for counter-attacks,” said Union’s head coach, Ailien Poese, ahead of the game on Tuesday. “It's important for us to start the game aggressively and passionately, to win the ball back again and again and to find the gaps in the offence – and, above all, to exploit them.”

Tickets for the match are available from the FC Carl Zeiss Jena ticket shop. Block F is the away section. Eiserne Virus are also offering a bus service to Jena.

The match will be broadcast live on Magenta Sport and DAZN. As usual, Union will also provide updates in English on both Twitter and Bluesky