1. FC Union Berlin’s men’s team will play their 25^th game of the Bundesliga season this Sunday, 9 March, when they travel to face Eintracht Frankfurt. Kick off at Deutsche Bank Park is at 15:30.

The lie of the land

After their exploits in the UEFA Europa League, Eintracht Frankfurt must now return to their bread and butter Bundesliga routine. While they are well placed to advance into the next round of European competition after their 2-1 first-leg away win on Thursday in the last sixteen knockout round at Ajax Amsterdam, Eintracht must now focus on a clash between two sides who have faced a tough couple of weeks on home soil.

Having gone seven games without defeat in the German top flight, Dino Toppmöller’s side recently suffered two painful defeats; 4-0 against FC Bayern and 4-1 at home to Bayer Leverkusen. Nevertheless, Eintracht are still in third place in the table and are hoping to qualify for European competition again.

Union, on the other hand, are aiming for 13th place rather than 3^rd. With 23 points, Baumgart's team are currently six points ahead of the relegation play-off place and would like to distance themselves further from the bottom three with a win on Sunday.

The opponents

Few Bundesliga clubs have demonstrated as good an eye for players with potential as Eintracht Frankfurt. Especially in attack, sporting director Markus Krösche and his staff have a reliable knack for discovering new talent and developing it further. A few seasons ago, it was Luka Jović, Sébastien Haller and Randal Kolo Muani, more recently it was Omar Marmoush. All of them came to Eintracht for little or no money, achieved their sporting breakthrough and moved to new employers for huge transfer fees.

The successors were either already lined up or were quickly signed up, as in the previous winter transfer window. To replace Marmoush's 23 goals and 14 assists (in all competitions) from the first half of the season, SGE brought in centre forward Elye Wahi from Marseille and Michy Batshuayi from Galatasaray, who is already well known in the league.

While the newcomers are settling in, Toppmöller and his coaching team are relying on ‘tried and tested’ personnel for the time being. Hugo Ekitiké is responsible for the goals in the front line (13 goals and three assists), while young talent Can Uzun provides the appropriate passes or scores himself (five points) when playing on the wing or in behind.

The head to head

This away game against the fairest team in the league (only 35 yellow cards) is the 20th competitive clash between the two. The record so far is in Eintracht’s favour, with 10 wins. In addition, to the six draws, Union have three wins.

The reunion

Frederik Rönnow, Union's number one, kept goal in Frankfurt for 21 matches between 2018 and 2020 and also played in the UEFA Europa League during this time.

Personnel matters

Union's coaching team will not be able to call on Oluwaseun Ogbemudia, Aljoscha Kemlein and Robert Skov.

Statements before the game

“We are looking ahead and focusing on the difficult game in Frankfurt,” said Union’s head coach, Steffen Baumgart, during his press conference on Friday afternoon. “The preparation has been intense and focused. Frankfurt are currently one of the top three teams in Germany, they play very well in depth and bring a high tempo to the pitch. But we are determined to get our points and will do everything we can to start there.”

His opposite number, Dino Toppmöller, meanwhile had this to say,  “The expectation is clear, to build on the performance in Amsterdam with the same intensity and ideally another win. 1. FC Union Berlin play very intensely, are very good at second balls and set-pieces.”

Service information

Just over 3,000 Union fans will be accompanying their team to the away game in Frankfurt. Some of them will be travelling on the special train organised by V.I.R.U.S. The Union vehicle will also be there. Information on visiting the stadium can be found here.

The game will be broadcast live on DAZN. In addition, there will be an audio stream on rbb24 Inforadio and on rbb24, and, as usual, Union will also provide information on the game on the club's own live ticker as well as providing live updates in English and Spanish on Twitter.