This Sunday 1. FC Union Berlin's women's team will play their last match of this first half of the season against Rostocker FC. The match is at home, at Dörpfeldstraße. Kick-off is at 13:00.

The opponents

Rostock are currently sat at the bottom of the league having only picked up one point from their twelve games played so far and, with seven points separating them from safety, they are already courting relegation. That single point came on on Matchday 7, when they drew 2-2 with SFC Stern. It was the high point of an otherwise hard season, whose nadir came in a 14-0 loss to top of the table Viktoria Berlin in front of their home crowd. They have the worst defence in the league with 59 goals conceded, an average of five goals per game.

In order for Robert Fölsch's team (Fölsch has been head coach since 2017) to stay up, they need goals, otherwise, another relegation to the Verbandsliga is inevitable and imminent. The club were already relegated in 2018, but were able to come straight back up. They clung on by the skin of their teeth, benefitting from the fact that two clubs, SC Staaken and FC Phoenix Leipzig, withdrew their teams from the league prematurely.

The head to head

Union's record against Rostocker FC is largely flawless - at least in terms of results. They have won all three of their encounters.

Although the victories were always clear-cut (7-1, 4-1, 6-1), they have not yet managed to go without conceding a goal. Motivation enough for the team and especially goalkeeper Melanie Wagner to put an end to this series on Sunday.

The coach's view ahead of the game

"Though we are playing the team at the bottom of the table, Rostock have nothing to lose in the last game of the year, so we need to be careful of a strong team," explained head coach Ailien Poese before the game.

Marie Becker, Naika Reissner and Pauline Wimmer, who are still missing due to injury, will not be able to play. There are also question marks over Elisa Spolaczyk, Latoya Bach and Melanie Wagner. Zita Rurack, meanwhile, has returned to training after a month-long injury. Whether she will be ready to play on Sunday will be decided at the end of the week.