With Union Berlin’s lack of goals from attack-minded players, Steffen Baumgart made a few changes to his lineup. As a result, Jeong Woo-yeong and ex-Leipzig striker Oliver Burke started the last game of the year at Stadion An der Alten Försterei.
The former created the game’s first meaningful attack by evading Willi Orbán’s challenge, but his decision-making let him down. At the other end, the in-form winger Yan Diomande was at the heart of Leipzig’s promising attacks.
The Ivorian called Frederik Rønnow into action in the 16th minute for the game’s first clear-cut chance. From the resulting corner-kick, the Danish goalkeeper parried away Christoph Baumgartner’s header.
The hosts had a hard time stopping the masked man Diomande as Janik Haberer had no other option than fouling him in a dangerous area, which resulted in his fifth yellow card of the season. The midfielder will miss the last game of 2025 away at Köln.
David Raum, who scored from a direct free-kick against the Billy Goats this season, came close from the resulting set-piece opportunity. Ilyas Ansah and Conrad Harder tried to create havoc on opposing defenders, but both goalkeepers had very little to do in the rest of the half until the final action.
Haberer failed to make a clean contact from Derrick Köhn’s superb delivery. Union finally ended their goal drought against Leipzig in the 58th minute. Jeong and Burke combined well as the Scotsman punished his former employers with an emphatic finish.
That was the first goal Union scored against Leipzig in nearly three years. However, the lead only lasted for three minutes. Tidiam Gomis, who entered the pitch right after the goal alongside Union’s Christopher Trimmel, opened his Leipzig account with a brilliant finish.
Another three minutes later, it was the turn of Trimmel to impact the game. The 38-year-old’s pinpoint delivery was gladly accepted by Ansah as the Germany U21 international scored for the first time since matchday four.
The famous win was rounded off when Tim Skarke finally scored his first goal for the club in his 55th appearance. The 29-year-old combined well with fellow substitutes András Schäfer and Andrej Ilić to seal the three points in injury-time.
Before this game, none of Union’s last 10 goals were scored by an attacking player, but both of their starting strikers found the net here. Steffen Baumgart’s team was also at the bottom of the table in the second-half table in the previous 13 matchdays.
One thing remained the same, however. Union Berlin extended their unbeaten run on Fridays to ten matches. Since 2019, they’ve won eight games and drawn two when they were assigned in the opening fixture of Bundesliga matchdays. On the contrary, Leipzig only picked up a single point from three Friday night games this season.
Dortmund could overtake Leipzig in second place when they face Freiburg on Sunday. Ole Werner’s side won each of their seven games at RedBull Arena this season, but they will face a tricky fixture before the Winterpause against Bayer Leverkusen. Die Werkself will play a derby against Köln tomorrow before a special fixture for Baumgart when Union visit RheinEnergieSTADION next weekend.
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