In an excellent team performance, 1. FC Union beat TSG Hoffenheim 4-0, away from home on Saturday afternoon. While Andrej Ilić scored his first in an Union shirt, and Benedict Hollerbach bagged a brace, the plaudits would go to Marin Ljubičić who scored the third with his first ever touch in an Union shirt.

1. FC Union Berlin: Rönnow - Juranovic (76. Trimmel), Doekhi, Leite, Skov – Skarke (58. Ljubicic), Haberer (46. Tousart), Khedira, Hollerbach – Prtajin (46. Ilic), Jeong

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim: Philipp - Chaves, Östigard, Akpoguma (64. Kaderabek), Jurásek - Geiger, Bischof, Hlozek, Kramarić, Bülter (64. Yardimci) – Moerstedt (46. Orban)

The starting XI

Steffen Baumgart made just the one change from the side that started last weekend’s excellent goalless draw against Leipzig. Frederik Rönnow was in goal behind the back four of Robert Skov, Diogo Leite, Danilho Doekhi and Josip Juranović.

Rani Khedira and Janik Haberer were the holding midfielders, with Wooyeong Jeong ahead of them, in place of the sick László Bénes, playing behind the striker Ivan Prtajin. This left Tim Skarke and Benedict Hollerbach to play on the left and right wings, respectively.

Attendance: 20.023

Goals: 0-1 Hollerbach (24.), 0-2 Ljubicic (61.), 0-3 Ilic (73.), 0-4 Hollerbach (87.)

Rarely does a new relationship start out so well, but for 1. FC Union and Marin Ljubičić, it’s fair to say that the sparks are already flying. With an hour played the new signing, almost fresh from the plane, came onto the pitch.

A minute later he took his first touch. Goal.

“I'm very happy with the performance, with the game, but also with my move to Union,” he said after the final whistle, but, really, there were few words that could have done his most lightning of starts justice. Especially when it came in amongst Union’s best performance of the season.

“We talk about scoring goals every day," he continued, "and I hope that after the four today we will continue to do so in the future.” He’s not alone, in this the Union fans have cause for hope; reason to believe.

But if his was new, there were plenty of old faces on show on Saturday afternoon on as Union strode out in the PreZero Arena in Sinsheim, at leastdown on the pitch, with swathes of blue seats to be seen in the stands on a chilly day. It was hardly the warmest of welcomes, but then nor was the elbow to the face of the former Hoffenheimer, Robert Skov, delivered by the former Unioner, Marius Bülter.

Union looked sharp in those opening minutes, and Rani Khedira looked to the referee having flashed a header wide after Skarke’s cross in, certain he’d been knocked off balance as he rose for the ball from the right. The excellent Benedict Hollerbach, always keen to join in the action, with no thoughts other than to head off towards goal as soon as he saw the ball, drew a stop from Luca Philipp at his near post as he charged in down the other side.

Union were full of positivity, their wingers buzzing up and down the flanks and Hollerbach, particularly, was a menace. It took a last-ditch clearance, over his own bar, from Dennis Geiger to get his pass across goal away from danger. But this was a day when all the players in red and white were to stand up. Ivan Prtajin was also getting involved, seeing his first shot deflected out, his second flying just wide.

The Croatian would have another effort stopped well by Philipp soon afterwards, this time thwarted by a single leg, stuck out as the keeper’s balance took him the wrong way to Prtajin’s close-range shot. He headed over after half an hour, this time from Josip Juranović’s whipped in cross from the right. He was getting closer as Union dominated.

Indeed, it took the best part of 20 minutes for the hosts to have their first sniff on goal, but when it came Danilho Doekhi was more than equal to Max Moerstadt, brushing him off the ball before Adam Hlozek failed to get anything on his header at the back post from the resulting corner.

So, it was with a certain sense of inevitability that it would be the irrepressible Hollerbach who would both create and score the opener. He broke up the middle, swaying to his left, his body moving, elbow out, as if he was leaning on a bar in a gentleman's club, before passing the ball out left to the overlapping Skov. The cross came back in, and though Skarke stretched for it, moving it on, the deflection came back only as far as Hollerbach.

He hadn’t even broken his stride as he hit the ball past Philipp. He made it look so easy.

He would see his shot cannon off Arthur Chaves and fly just wide before the half was out, but shortly after, Union’s magnificent fans had their hearts in their mouths, as Andre Kramaric was played through. Hoffenheim’s talisman looked certain to score but Rönnow stood up as long as he could, forcing the shot, and stopping hit with stinged palms. He would equal it a minute or two later when Hlozek tested him from a similar distance.

Both saves were excellent, Union’s stopper as if taking his lead from his countrymen’s recent handball world cup win. Always on his toes, he lives by his reflexes, and he saw Union into the break more than deserving of their lead.

Ljubičić scores with his first touch, Hollerbach and Ilić add two more

Steffen Baumgart made two changes at the break, bringing Andrej Ilić on for Prtajin, and Lucas Tousart for Janik Haberer, but it would be Hollerbach, again, who made the first impression following the break, refusing to concede the ball and springing Wooyeong Jeong free, inside right. He looked to his right for the new man, Ilić, but found himself instead, turning back and again, flashing his eventual shot wide of the left-hand post.

The tables were turned five minutes later when Jeong turned provider, and Hollerbach finisher, even if the result was ultimately the same. Hollerbach’s next scene would be as he writhed in agony, brought down by Leo Östigaard, even if the former Rennes and Napoli player had gone in with nominally fair intentions.

Östigaard was then involved in the box, as there was an almighty pile-in, Rönnow having come for a corner, but failing to properly connect as he leapt through the swamp of players in the box around him. The ball dropped, but none of them - neither Östigaard nor Tom Bischof nor Kramaric - could find the time or space in which to squeeze out a shot as Union’s keeper struggled to return to his feet. The ball ended up sailing over the bar.

There was drama in this still. But it would all come at the other end.

With the best part of an hour played Baumgart brought on the new signing, Ljubičić, for Skarke. The new man, who the coach had said on Thursday was unlikely to even play a role, was drifting into a dangerous position, inside left, as Yeong picked up on Akpoguma’s loose ball out. He slipped the pass through perfectly.

Ljubičićwaited for the ball to pass him, shifting his weight to the left to just give Philipp pause to think about which way he’d go. It barely mattered, he went across the keeper with his left, and the ball rolled easily inside the back post.

It was his first touch in an Union shirt, his first touch in the Bundesliga. Ljubičić had now scored in his three debuts as a professional footballer, but this would take the biscuit.

For Union it felt like their demons had been banished. They were playing with freedom and joy. Skov skipped into the box only be tackled at the last, but there was better to come.

Lucas Tousart had replaced Haberer with an hour played, and it was the Frenchman who would supply the next reason to be cheerful. He hit the byline after a dashing run, taking a stride or two inside before drilling the ball towards the near post, pulling it back just a touch as it went. The ball was played just to the space that Ilić, was running into. Though under pressure he stabbed the ball home past a flatfooted Philipp emphatically. He had done what he was told.

“The coach told me to just play my game and do my best. I'm grateful for the playing time and happy to be able to help the team with my work and goal,” he said, later.

It was, as they say, a fine striker’s finish.

Things would only get better. Having come on for Juranović, to wear the Union shirt for the 350th time, Christopher Trimmel found Ljubičić with the perfect pass. He turned inside, looking up, and laid it across the box for Hollerbach who caught it on the full, crashing the ball past Philipp, sending it in off the post.

They were having fin as the final moments played out. Hollerbach danced into space, squaring for Ilić who played in Jeong. Jeong tried to lift the ball over Philipp, but though it sailed over the bar, greeted by the end of the game, few there among them cared now.

As Baumgart said after the final whistle, “First of all, we're happy to have won an away game again after a long time. And in a very good way…The boys also played it out well most of the time and now, of course, we're happy about the goals.”

This was Union’s biggest away win since August 2023. The coach’s final words summed the feeling up nicely.

“Overall, there's little to complain about,” he said with a smile.