1. FC Union Berlin beat SV Babelsberg 03 on Friday afternoon 9-1 with the Köpenick club getting nine different players on the scoresheet. 

Suleiman Abdullahi, Sebastian Polter, Joshua Mees, Felix Kroos, Lennard Maloney, Kenny Prince Redondo, Berkan Taz, Simon Hedlund and Robert Zulj all found the net against the fourth-tier opponents from nearby Potsdam. Substitute Tom Nattermann scored a consolation with eight minutes left.

1. FC Union Berlin: Busk; Maloney, Schößwendter, Schönheim (Torrejon 45), Lenz (Alimler 66); Zejnullahu, Kroos (Schmiedebach 66); Mees (Hedlund 61), Redondo, Polter (Taz 61), Abdullahi (Zulj 61)

SV Babelsberg 03: Flügel (Gladrow 45); Salla (Okada 45), Steuk (Schulze 45), Rode, Montcheu (Wilton 45); Koch, Riemann (Danko 66); Igbinige (Abderrahmane 45), Sargat (Dombrowa 66), Wolff (Nattermann 66), Hoffmann

Attendance: 400

Urs Fischer used the international break to put his squad through their paces against Regionalliga opponents. The travelling party was supported from the sidelines by Akaki Gogia, Ken Reichel, Grischa Prömel, Florian Hübner and Christopher Trimmel — five of the first-team players who were given a well-earned rest after the stresses of the past few weeks. Jakob Busk stepped in to replace last weekend’s goal hero Rafal Gikiewicz.

Union Berlin’s starting strikers made an instant impression with the 2.Bundesliga side having two goals early on ruled out for offside. Eventually, Abdullahi wrestled clear of his marker before smashing home after six minutes at the Fritz-Lesch Sportplatz in Berlin. Some smart build-up play in attack presented Polter with an empty net on 21 minutes. The striker made no mistake and gave Union a two-goal advantage. Mees made a great run on 38 minutes to pierce open the Babelsberg defence and score Union’s third. Fischer’s side ended the half with two quick-fire goals in the space of a minute — Kroos finished from the edge of the box with the inside of his right-foot before Maloney fired in a fine finish from an attacking positon.

After a solid 45 minutes, Schönheim made way for Marc Torrejon who returned to action after an injury lay-off. Babelsberg changed up their side, moving from a traditional 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2 formation to close up the spaces in their defensive line. This was done for the first quarter of an hour until Union broke through inside a few minutes with Redondo and Taz adding the sixth and seventh respectively. Taz was one of three changes after Redondo’s strike, with Hedlund and Zulj getting some game time. Manuel Schmiedebach was introduced for the final 20 minutes alongside Berkan Alimler from the club’s U19 Bundesliga squad. Hedlund scored the eighth on 75 minutes before Zulj punished a mistake from the substitute goalkeeper five minutes later. Babelsberg pulled one back late on through Nattermann who roamed through the Union defence to score past Busk in the 82nd minute.