1. FC Union Berlin lost 1-0 away against VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon. Despite a much improved second half performance, that rarely saw them played off the pitch, Ridle Baku’s 71^st minute goal was enough to settle the tie.

VfL Wolfsburg: Grabara - Fischer, Vavro, Koulierakis, Mæhle, Dardai (79. Gerhardt), Arnold – Baku (90.+3 Zesiger), Wimmer (63. Wind), Tomás (63. Nmecha) - Amoura (79. Özcan) 

1. FC Union Berlin: Rönnow – Trimmel, Doekhi, Vogt, Leite (9. Querfeld), Skov (46. Rothe) – Kemlein, Khedira (82. Bénes) – Haberer (70. Jeong), Siebatcheu, Vertessen (46. Hollerbach) 

The starting XI

Bo Svensson made two changes from his side that started against Freiburg back before the international break, but his backline remained the same. Frederik Rönnow was in goal, behind Diogo Leite, Kevin Vogt and Danilho Doekhi.

Rani Khedira and Aljsocha Kemlein were in central midfield, flanked by Christopher Trimmel on the right and Robert Skov on the left.

Up front were Yorbe Vertessen, while Janik Haberer came in for Wooyeong Jeong and Jordan Siebatcheu replaced Benedict Hollerbach to play as the target man.

Attendance:  23,861 

Goal:  1-0 Baku (71.) 

 Leite’s early injury mars a competitive first half

With five minutes time to play already signalled, Danilho Doekhi joined Union’s attack as they strived for a goal to drag themselves back into the game. Few around here had forgotten his goal the last time Union played Wolfsburg, and not just for the fact that it remains statistically the latest first half goal ever scored in Bundesliga history.

But this time it wasn’t to be, and despite their efforts, Union have still never won a competitive game at the Volkswagen Arena. It was a tough loss to take. 

“We didn't play well in the first half,” said Union’s head coach, Bo Svensson, after the final whistle. “We were too passive and lacked courage and good sequences of play in attack. It got better in the second half, partly due to the substitutions, and I think it was more of a draw in the end.”

He was right. Union were rarely played off the park, and were certainly without luck in front of goal.

But they had started off smartly, a flowing move that saw Trimmel find Haberer who found Kemlein who found Khedira who found Leite, stepping up. They had time and space, they looked composed and focussed, Trimmel and Haberer already showing the basis of an understanding on the right, even though it’s the first time they’ve lined up as such this season.

Frederick Rönnow, got an early touch, too – and it’s always good for a keeper to get his hands on the ball – when he leaped to hold a deep inswinging corner way above his head. He did just as well when he held Mohammed Amoura’s weak header after 10 minutes.

If the game would hardly catch fire in the opening phases, Union had their first chance at the other end as Jordan saw his header flicked wide off Denis Vavro as he went for Skov’s free kick. Union’s striker would put in a shift for as long as he was on the pitch, making challenges at the back, challenging for long balls up top.

But for all the positivity of their start, Diogo Leite went down after only six minutes in a heap, having stretched for the ball, his knee taking the weight and jarring as his foot touched the turf. He limped off disconsolately, helped by his trainers, replaced by Leopold Querfeld. Leite is such an integral part of one of the league’s best defences, but his work going forward is integral.

"It doesn't look good," was Svensson's assessment after the final whistle, and it took the wind out of their sails for a moment.

Despite his absence, Union looked more than solid at the back, as shown by Kevin Vogt’s smart robbing of Tiago Tomas, taking the ball on a touch and hitting it long, straight to Jordan. Querfeld’s first real moment came only five minutes after he came on, when he tackled Amoura and Patrick Wimmer in tandem in his own box, facing Rönnow’s goal. Many would have panicked, the Austrian, though, has a wise head on young shoulders and he barely seemed to break sweat.

Maybe that was just the bitter cold, though, that chilled every corner and the places where there were nothing but empty seats in the Volkswagen Arena. Vogt brushed Wimmer off the ball the way a waiter does breadcrumbs off a restaurant table later, he just leant into him, his weight going one way, his foot anchored to the ball below.  

It had been a slow start from both sides, but Wolfsburg were growing in confidence and Rönnow made his next good stop after 24 minutes when Wimmer found Tomas in the box, but again he needed to get a better contact on his shot to really test Union’s keeper. He swept up the danger with the greatest of ease.

Jordan was back to make another of many good challenges next up, but after his flat ball out it was time for Yorbe Vertessen to show his first flash of magic, talking the ball with a lightning backheel-to-toe quickstep that wouldn’t have been out of place on a Hollywood soundstage of the 50’s. Though he was ultimately crowded off the ball as he advanced into the Wolfsburg half, it lit up the afternoon as the skies darkened all around.

For all his brilliance, Rönnow is not infallible, but it was still a surprise to see him lose the flight of the ball for a terrifying millisecond as the longest of free kicks reached his byline above head height. He seemed to have it under control before the ball somehow bounced out of his hands. The threat, however, was fleeting, it was quickly dealt with.

Wolfsburg’s most dangerous player, the German international, Ridle Baku, had the next good chance; set up by Konstantinos Koulierakis and then Toma. He beat Doekhi, but put his shot wide of Rönnow’s left-hand post with 35 minutes played, but still as the half came towards its end, neither side had really threatened much, even if the hosts had seen more of the ball. Amoura came closer, shortly before the end, but again his lob didn’t have enough dip on it to worry Rönnow, carefully watching this one all the way as he backpedalled.

Baku takes his chance, seals the hosts’ first home win of the season.  

Svensson made two changes at the break, bringing on Tom Rothe and Benedict Hollerbach for Robert Skov and Vertessen, and he was to point out the difference that they made. Rothe was immediately into the action, skipping past Baku, before breing brought down by Kilian Fischer outside the box out towards the left. Trimmel’s free kick was whipped in, but Kamil Grabara punched it clear, if uncertainly.

He managed to get his head on Trimmel’s cross in from the right with 53 minutes gone, but the ball was dropping too quickly and by the time he met it he was stooping to shoulder height, and couldn’t get any power on the ball, if he did direct it towards Grabara’s goal.

Svensson prowled his technical area, his coat buttoned up, his hands in his pockets, and he watched on as Kemlein’s shot from the edge of the box took a slight deflection, taking the sting out of the ball. He had a cleaner strike shortly after, after more diligent hold up play from Jordan, but hit this one over. Both opportunities had come from the effervescent Hollerbach, who likes nothing more than to charge at defenders, and was a flickering threat on the left since his halftime arrival on the pitch.

Rönnow was also ready to make up for his earlier aberration, and his save from Amoura, when put through on goal, was a masterpiece, standing up tall for as long as he could, blocking the ball with the top of his chest – even if the Wolfsburg striker was adjudged to be offside as the ball came to him.

Union were finding chances hard to come by, but Khedira and Kemlein were working as hard as ever in midfield, and the former found Jordan again up top, the striker drawing the foul, providing a free kick that many of the 3,000-plus travelling Unioner were certain that Kemlein had bent inside the top corner, only for the ball to have rattled the top of the side netting instead.

But if Union were looking like they would be first to break the deadlock, with 20 minutes played Union’s roof fell in. The ball pinged around the box, from the left to the middle - from Maximilian Arnold to Bence Dardai, with Wimmer and Vogt both in there fighting for it – until it ultimately dropped perfectly for Baku to stroke past Rönnow.

Wolfsburg had the lead, and everyone present knew about Union’s joyless record here over the years.

Union came back, but Jordan must have been wondering what more he had to do to break his season’s duck. He caught the substitute (having replaced Haberer) Wooyeong Jeong’s cross perfectly, acrobatically, on the volley, but, diving backwards, somehow Grabara sprung to his left to claw the ball away from its trajectory inside the right-hand post.

Kemlein came almost as close just five minutes later when he took Jeong’s pass inside, and hit it on the turn, agonisingly across goal, past Grabara, but also past the back post.

Svensson made his final change with ten minutes to go, introducing László Bénes for Khedira, but the new man could only watch as Trimmel’s cross was flicked up and over him as he loitered inside the six-yard box. Wolfsburg by now had most of their men back, determined to hold on to their lead, and break their own winless run at home this season, and when Salih Özcan brought the ball down from a clearance just inside Union’s half, he looked around to see nobody in support at all, just the sight of Union’s defence haring towards him en-masse

Union continued their siege for much of the remaining time - with Doekhi up there and all - with just Rönnow’s excellent stop from Arnold’s free kick at the other end a reversal of the momentum. But little would work by now, and when Grabara flew to his right to stop Benes’ curling, right-footed drive, it was all over bar the shouting.

Captain Trimmel was circumspect after the final whistle, calling it a “difficult game in which we played well defensively, especially in the first half,” but he noted his sides “inaccuracies in the final third.”

Svensson would say in the press conference that his side’s timing was off. Union’s luckless run in the Autostadt continues.