The Form Teams Meet:
Union Travel to Play Leverkusen
In the hundredth away game of 1. FC Union Berlin’s men’s Bundesliga tenure, they will travel to play at the home of the reigning champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Kick off in the matchday 29 fixture at the BayArena on Saturday, 12 April 2025, is at 15:30.
The lie of the land
Bayer 04 Leverkusen may be the team with the best recent form in the league, having picked up twelve points from their last five games, their dreams of defending the DFB Pokal were recently scotched. Xavi Alonso’s side lost 2-1 to surprise team and Union conquerors Arminia Bielefeld in the semi-finals and, having also been knocked out in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, the league holds their last chances for silverwear this season. They kept their title hopes alive last time out with a last-minute win at 1. FC Heidenheim.
Union, on the other hand, want to continue their own winning streak and, after the convincing results and performances of the previous four games, once again continue towards their goal of avoiding relegation. Last Sunday’s 1-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg means that they are currently the Bundesliga team with the longest unbeaten run, following the 2-1 win in Frankfurt, the 1-1 draw against FC Bayern and the 2-1 win at SC Freiburg. With 33 points, head coach Steffen Baumgart's team has now collected the same number of points as in the entire 2023/24 season and are still in sight of the magical 40-point mark.
After they broke the so-called Vizekusen curse – doomed to being the eternal runners-up - in the 2023/24 season, Leverkusen are currently on course to finish the season back in second place again. With six matches to go before the final reckoning, B04, with 62 points, are six behind their rivals from Munich. In addition, their goal difference is 25 goals worse. Should this remain the case after 34 games, it would mean a sixth second-placed finish in the club's history.
A likely top-three finish would however mean qualification for a European competition for the eighth year in a row.
With the 1-0 win in Heidenheim, Leverkusen also continued their impressive streak of late goals. Since the summer of 2023, the team built around Florian Wirtz and Co. have scored 31 times in the final quarter of an hour, and even this season, they have picked up a strong eight points with goals scored from the 90th minute onwards.
Historically speaking, Bayer 04 Leverkusen have an edge leading into Saturday’s game, having won nine of the 14 previous competitive duels, with four draws and one solitary home win for Union.
Saturday will mean seeing some friendly faces for two players. Robert Andrich, current German international and back as an integral part of the Leverkusen team again, played 66 times for Union until his transfer in 2021. Kevin Volland played for Leverkusen between 2016 and 2020, making 148 appearances for B04 during that time.
Union's coaching staff will have to do without Aljoscha Kemlein, Robert Skov and Wooyeong Jeong for the game.
‘As an Union fan, you never take it for granted that we will win a game – but you always assume that we will do everything we can to win,” said Union’s head coach, Steffen Baumgart, during his press conference on Thursday afternoon. “And that's exactly what we'll show again on Saturday. Leverkusen are a team of outstanding players and are reigning champions for a reason. It is all the more important that we stand compactly defensively, bring our strengths onto the pitch and tackle our tasks with full consistency. Then we can also hold our own against a top team like Leverkusen,’ said head coach Steffen Baumgart in the run-up to the game.
The team can count on the support of 2,400 Union fans in the Rhineland stadium; the Union mobile Zeughaus will also be there. Information on visiting the stadium can be found here (German).
The game will be broadcast live on SKY. There will also be an audio stream on rbb24 Inforadio and on rbb24. As usual, Union will also provide information on the game via the club's own live ticker, as well as providing live updates in English and Spanish on Twitter.
