Bundesliga: Union wins Berlin city duel, Werder stops Wolfsburg soaring

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Köpenicker Jubeltraube: Paul Seguin is celebrated by the other Union players after his goal in the Berlin city duel

Photo: IMAGO/Matthias Koch

After ten games without defeat, VfL Wolfsburg has to admit defeat again – 1: 2 (0: 1) against a clearly improved Werder Bremen.

Mainz 05 started the second half of the season just as successfully with a 5-2 (3-0) win over Bochum as Borussia Mönchengladbach, who won 4-1 (2-0) at TSG Hoffenheim.

SC Freiburg won 3-1 (2-1) against FC Augsburg, in the capital duel Union Berlin won 2-0 (1-0) against Hertha BSC.

The conditions before the Hertha BSC game against Union Berlin were clear: While the guests from Köpenick could confidently go into the city duel and would move back to second place with a win, Sandro Schwarz's team urgently needed points in the relegation battle as they were penultimate.

The fact that this didn't exist again was mainly due to Union's usual merciless efficiency: Hertha BSC had the guests under control for an entire half.

Then Danilho Doekhi headed a Trimmel cross into the goal (44th minute) – the interaction between the two defenders had already resulted in two goals against Hoffenheim a week ago.

After the break, Union was able to rely on the well-known strengths: Urs Fischer's team didn't give up much at the back, Sheraldo Becker kept the overview on a counterattack and served Paul Seguin, who decided the game (67th).

At the start of the season, Freiburg laid the foundation for an outstanding first half of the season with a 4-0 win in Augsburg.

The 1-0 goalscorer from back then gave Freiburg the lead in the second leg as well: Michael Gregoritsch, himself at FCA from 2017 to 2022, scored a perfectly placed shot into the far corner from a half-left position (13').

Compensation with a penalty kick by Mërgim Berisha (29th).

immediately shook the SC out of their clothes: Less than 90 seconds later, Lucas Höler gave the hosts the lead again (30').

The intensive encounter created numerous opportunities, Augsburg was offensive, the SC countered dangerously again and again.

Philipp Lienhart headed the decision (85th).

Freiburg will end the match day in fourth, fifth or sixth place, Augsburg cannot move out of the relegation zone.

Six Wolfsburg victories in a row, compared to four Werder defeats from the last four games: the form curves before the northern duel diverged widely.

Bremen coach Ole Werner tried to counter the negative trend with continuity – apart from the ailing Leonardo Bittencourt and the young midfielder Ilia Gruev, who was to be rested at the end of the English week, nobody had to give way from Bremen's recently unsuccessful starting eleven.

However, the fact that this trust became the recipe for success also had something to do with the referee: Daniel Siebert's penalty kick against Yannick Gerhardt was a tough decision after the Wolfsburg player was shot from close range to his arm, which was only slightly bent (24').

Niclas Füllkrug scored his twelfth goal of the season to take the lead.

The half-time lead for Bremen was okay, Werder scored more goals than VfL, only a shot by Mattias Svanberg (34th), which hit the crossbar, caused a real danger.

After the break, Wolfsburg got stronger but didn't create enough clear chances.

Instead, Füllkrug refined an attack played with overview to decide (77th), Kevin Paredes' goal came too late (90th).

There have already been two Bundesliga matchdays this year, and neither Hoffenheim (one point) nor Mönchengladbach (zero points) were able to win.

A tendency should now not become a series for both teams.

The hosts started with four new players, including John Anthony Brooks, just two days after his signing.

And it was the American who canceled the offside with a long shot forward in the 12th minute – Jonas Hofmann thanked him and hit the Hoffenheim goal on the bottom right.

Brooks didn't look good with the second goal either and Hofmann converted again from about eleven meters (37th).

As a result, Hoffenheim remained far too harmless offensively for a long time to endanger the guests.

Ihlas Bebou was only able to shorten the lead (80'), but Lars Stindl restored the two-goal gap shortly afterwards (84') and Hannes Wolf added the final point (90'+1').

The Gladbachers are keeping up with the European places and can look forward to their first away win in the Bundesliga since April 2022.

Bochum's goal of not conceding their ninth defeat in their tenth away game of the season was dampened after just 57 seconds: goalkeeper Riemann was unable to decisively fend off a sharp cross, and the following attempt by Anthony Caci to shoot Lee Jae-sung showed Bochum over the line unimpressed, but conceded the next neck blow after a good quarter of an hour when Silvan Widmer scored to make it 2-0 (18th).

Bochum now made it too easy for the opponent: Karim Onisiwo received a catastrophic return and lobbed the ball to make it 3-0 (28th).

Even a quadruple change at the beginning of the second half didn't bring Bochum back into the game.

Onisiwo increased to 4:0 (57th).

Ex-Mainz player Pierre Kunde made it 4-1 in the 70th minute, two minutes later Erhan Mašović suddenly made it 4-2 (72nd).

Mainz now wobbled, but scored the knockout blow: Onisiwo increased his seventh goal of the season to 5:2 (88th) – he scored five of them against VfL.

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