Taiwo Awoniyi enjoyed the moment to the fullest. A week ago he was unlucky in the defeat in Wolfsburg with an own goal and now the Berliners cheered him euphorically among the 16,500 spectators in the An der Alten Försterei stadium. “Awoniyi, Awoniyi, Taiwo Awoniyi” rang out from the stands to the tune of the 80s hit “Give it up” by KC and the Sunshine Band, and the Berlin striker beamed.
However, he only did that up to the 90th minute. Because shortly before the end, the 1.Union gave up the win against VfB Stuttgart. Again, Sasa Kalajdzic scored late against the Berliners. In the end it was Urs Fischer’s 150th game with Union 1: 1 (1: 0).
Due to the late equalizer, the Berliners missed the chance of staying up after their first goal of the season. Two points are still missing from the much-cited 40-point mark. While Union have been relatively unsuccessful away from home recently, the team remained unbeaten in their own stadium for the third time in a row – but nobody was happy about that on Saturday afternoon.
While VfB were unchanged after the important 3-2 win against Gladbach a week ago, this was not possible for Fischer. Four players tested positive for the corona virus during the week, including regular players Andreas Luthe and Genki Haraguchi. Frederik Rönnow and Kevin Möhwald played for them. In addition, Paul Jaeckel began for Dominique Heintz, Christopher Trimmel for Julian Ryerson and Niko Gießelmann for Bastian Oczipka.
Khedira narrowly missed his first goal
In bright sunshine and in front of a backdrop that has only rarely been seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Union got off to a good start. Less than three minutes had been played when Rani Khedira narrowly missed his first goal for the Berliners. The former VfB pro clearly has his strengths on the defensive, but his full-span shot from the edge of the penalty area was not far off.
Stuttgart tried again and again to use their speed advantages on the flanks after winning the ball, but Union acted very concentrated and had a good grip in the duels. VfB were unable to manage more than two unclean shots from set pieces by Hiroki Ito and Konstantinos Mavropanos in the first half.
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But the Berliners also struggled on the offensive after the early chance for Khedira. Stuttgart gave them the ball for long stretches and that’s not exactly Union’s favorite starting position, as is well known. But from the middle of the first half, the hosts slowly found gaps in the VfB defence.
Grischa Prömel in particular caused a number of dangers with his advances from central midfield. Gießelmann used his cross from the right to fire a shot from a tight angle, but Florian Müller had no problems with it. A little later, Prömel hit the side netting with a shot from the short corner and in the closing stages of the first half, the midfielder was the starting point for Berlin’s opening goal.
Unions Defensive stand sicher
From close range he shot the ball against Mavropanos’ slightly spread arm – penalty kick was a reasonable decision, but quite annoying from Stuttgart’s point of view. Awoniyi succeeded penalty specialist Max Kruse and confidently hit the right corner. A few minutes earlier, the Nigerian striker had beaten Müller after a set-up by Sheraldo Becker, but was clearly offside.
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The 1-0 break lead for the Berliners was undoubtedly okay given the chances. After the change of sides, Union initially withdrew a few meters and Stuttgart was trying to finally create something like pressure. But it was little more than an attempt. Union’s defense was secure, substitute goalkeeper Rönnow didn’t get any opportunities to distinguish himself, and the Berliners continued to make the more dangerous impression.
After an hour, Stuttgart coach Pellegrino Matarazzo had seen enough and brought fresh strength from the bench. This did not change the balance of power for the time being, nor did the substitutions of András Schäfer, Andreas Voglsammer and Sven Michel. Union had a great chance of making the preliminary decision after a cross from Becker, but Gießelmann didn’t hit the ball cleanly – and that was punished. Five minutes before the end, Kalajdzic shot the ball just wide of the post, but a little later the Austrian did better after an excellent cross from Borna Sosa.
