BERLIN:
Union Berlin remain on course for a first-ever Champions League qualification, reclaiming third in the Bundesliga with a 1-1 home draw against Bochum on Sunday.
Union took the lead late in the first half thanks to a Josip Juranovic free kick, before Bochum’s Kevin Stoeger equalised from the spot early in the second.
Union were reduced to 10 men shortly after the penalty but were the more dangerous side in the closing stages, forward Kevin Behrens going agonisingly close to a winner with five minutes remaining.
Despite dropping points, Union leapfrogged RB Leipzig who won 3-2 at home against Augsburg on Saturday to move back to third.
Union manager Urs Fischer blamed his side’s “lethargic minutes” at the start of the second half, saying “in football, you get punished for mistakes.”
Free-kick specialists Union opened the scoring in typical fashion in first-half injury time.
Croatia international Juranovic hit a perfectly weighted free kick between a gap in the wall and past keeper Manu Riemann, his fourth goal since arriving from Celtic in January.
Bochum grabbed control of the fixture in a ten-minute period early in the second half, starting with a seemingly harmless tactical yellow card for Union’s Paul Jaeckel after 50 minutes.
Union’s Aissa Laidouni swept Ivan Ordets’ legs out from under him in the penalty box shortly after, with Stoeger blasting the equaliser straight down the middle from the spot.
Five minutes later, Jaeckel picked up a second yellow for a foul on Patrick Osterhage, reducing the home side to ten men.
Union’s Behrens’ had a 64th-minute goal chalked off for offside.
The big forward had another golden chance with five minutes to go when Sheraldo Becker found him unmarked in front of goal, but he headed just wide.
Bochum, who have claimed eight points from their past five matches, go three points clear of the relegation places with the draw.
In Sunday’s late game, Wolfsburg dented Bayer Leverkusen‘s hopes of an unlikely return to Champions League football, holding Xabi Alonso’s in-form side to a 0-0 draw at home.
Leverkusen, who had been in the relegation zone when the former Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Real Madrid player took over as coach earlier in the year, won five league matches in a row to sit in the Europa League placings.
Leverkusen’s Sardar Azmoun rattled the bar after 27 minutes and Moussa Diaby was a constant source of danger for the visitors, a long-range bullet forcing a two-handed save from Wolfsburg goalie Koen Casteels with 20 minutes remaining.
Casteels again intervened with just one minute left, rushing off his line to stifle Amine Adli, who was one-on-one with the keeper, securing a point for the home side.
Earlier on Sunday, second-half goals from Roland Sallai and Lucas Hoeler lifted Freiburg to a 2-1 comeback win at Werder Bremen.
Trailing 1-0 after former Freiburg striker Maximilian Philipp gave Bremen the lead a minute into the second half, Freiburg scored two goals in quick succession to turn the game on its head.
The win took Freiburg to fifth, one point behind RB Leipzig.
“These are absolute big points for us, we’re making up ground” said Freiburg midfielder Maximilian Eggestein, who spent a decade at Bremen.
Freiburg defender and 2014 World Cup winner Matthias Ginter toasted the “comeback” victory, saying “it’s very tight up the top – it’s a real slugfest.”
After a cagey opening half with few chances on each side, former Freiburg striker Philipp opened the scoring one minute into the second half.
Assisted by Leonardo Bittencourt after a box-to-box counter, Philipp tapped in for his first goal in Bremen colours.
Freiburg equalised soon after, Sallai collecting a pass from Hoeler and blasting in from long range.
Four minutes later, Hoeler got on the board himself, glancing a header past Jiri Pavlenka to give the visitors the lead.
Freiburg’s first win in four league matches keeps the side in the hunt for a maiden Champions League berth.
