0-1 against Bielefeld: Union Berlin no longer scores without Kruse

1. FC Union Berlin has not found its way back to success in the third game after Max Kruse.

On the 23rd matchday of the Bundesliga, the Irons lost 0-1 (0-0) to relegation candidate Arminia Bielefeld and have now been waiting for at least one point for three games.

In addition, the Berliners have now been without a goal for 276 minutes – Kruse is still the last Bundesliga goal scorer.

In front of 10,000 spectators, Masaya Okugawa gave Bielefeld the lead (53').

With his second home win, Bielefeld managed a small liberation in the relegation battle.

During the week, Union coach Urs Fischer was mainly concerned with his team's lack of goals.

"We've been working on it, logically," said Fischer after the last two games without a win or a goal: "But you can't do that at the push of a button, you can't force it either."

Instead, Fischer changed his starting formation to three positions.

Dominique Heintz replaced the suspended Robin Knoche, who was not in the starting eleven for the first time since summer 2020.

In addition, Rani Khedira and Julian Reyerson started for Christopher Trimmel and Levin Öztunali (both bench).

But first, the Bielefeld team took over and had the first good chance of the game.

However, Patrick Wimmer only hit the post with his deflected shot (11th).

The Berliners needed a good quarter of an hour to appear in front of the goal of East Westphalia for the first time in a reasonably dangerous manner.

Sheraldo Becker was unable to capitalize on an individual error (15').

As a result, the Köpenicker, who often tried long and high balls, did not really find their way into the game and were too often too far away from their opponents.

In the 36th minute of the game, Khedira missed the lead from around ten meters out in what was largely an uneventful first half.

Six minutes later, winter new signing Sven Michel also just missed against the high-ranking Bielefeld team after a counterattack.

In the second round, the Berliners were more alert, but Bielefeld scored the opening goal.

After a fine pass from the strong Wimmer, Okugawa completed the game with his eighth goal of the season (53').

Union continued to be dangerous as the game progressed, but failed several times at Bielefeld goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.