Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich Town – Match Report
Saturday, 15th Aug 2026 16:33<\/p>\n
Town completed their pre-season friendly programme with a convincing 4-2 victory over Union Berlin at Stadion An der Alten F\u00f6rstere. The Bundesliga side took the lead in the ninth minute via Zeno Van den Bosch, but Town hit back before the break through goals from Jack Clarke, Emersonn and a stunner from Dara O\u2019Shea, before Josip Juranovic pulled one back for the home side in the second half and Kasey McAteer completed the scoring late on. <\/p>\n
New signing Sasa Lukic, making his first appearance in a Town shirt, lined up in midfield alongside Marcelino Nunez ahead of a back four of skipper O\u2019Shea at right-back, Issa Diop and Jacob Greaves the centre-halves and Leif Davis at left-back. Kjell Scherpen was in goal.<\/p>\n
Sindre Walle Egeli was on the right of the attacking three with Clarke the number 10 and Daizen Maeda on the left. Emersonn was up front.<\/p>\n
Jaden Philogene and Christian Walton were back on the bench after injuries having not taken part in pre-season up to now, while Florentino Luis and Abdul Fatawu were both absent from the squad but sitting on the sidelines, presumably due to minor injuries. Young winger Tudor Mendel was again in the squad.<\/p>\n
As previously reported, George Hirst and Alex Palmer didn\u2019t travel with Stoke and Sunderland interested in the duo.<\/p>\n
Town struck the first shot in the sixth minute, Nunez blazing over from distance following a corner on the right won by Walle Egeli.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, Greaves was harshly booked for a foul on Wooyeong Jeong on the right, the South Korean going down very easily holding his face in front of the dugouts.<\/p>\n
And from the free-kick, the home side went in front. Juranovic took the kick quickly down the right to Jeong, who broke into space and his deflected cross was stabbed into the net at Kjell Scherpen\u2019s near post by Van den Bosch.<\/p>\n
Union saw most of the ball following the goal but without threatening further and in the 16th minute the Blues levelled.<\/p>\n
Greaves played a ball down the line round the outside for Davis, who brilliantly turned his man inside the area before cutting low across the six-yard box for Clarke, who turned into the net, the forward\u2019s first goal of pre-season.<\/p>\n
Davis continued to be a threat down the left, regularly getting well forward and in the 19th minute another run into a dangerous area eventually led to a Nunez cross-shot which almost caught out home keeper Carl Klaus, who was forced to tip over at his far post.<\/p>\n
From the corner, Union broke quickly, one-time Blues target Emmanuel Lathe Lath shooting not too far over from just outside the box.<\/p>\n
But, having got back on terms, Town were seeing most of the ball and were pinning the Bundesliga side in their half.<\/p>\n
On 24, Emersonn superbly held off his man on halfway to stab to Clarke, who subsequently returned the ball to the Brazilian, who flicked on to Maeda with the former Celtic man in on goal, however, Klaus was off his line quickly to block.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, the first hydration break of the afternoon was greeted by boos, perhaps a little harshly given it was 35 degrees.<\/p>\n
Once the game restarted, Latte Lath battled with Greaves round the outside on the right, the defender squeezing the former Middlesbrough man to a tight angle and his effort at goal was easy for Scherpen.<\/p>\n
On the half hour, Maeda unleashed a strike from distance which Klaus palmed away to his right.<\/p>\n
Walle Egeli wasn\u2019t far away in the 31st minute, cutting in from the right and shooting low towards the far corner, keeper Klaus\u2019s hand diverting it wide. From the corner, O\u2019Shea looked to flick goalwards, Klaus and his defenders having failed to deal with the ball into the area, not for the first time.<\/p>\n
Town deservedly took the lead in the 39th minute. Clarke wafted a cross in from midway inside the Union half on the right flank, Maeda flicked on at the near post and Emersonn tapped in from a couple of yards.<\/p>\n
The home side looked to hit back straight away, Latte Lath seeing a shot blocked, then a subsequent effort was scuffed, much to the frustration of the German fans.<\/p>\n
Town came close to working an opportunity for a third goal on 44, Walle Egeli bringing the ball forward down the middle but perhaps taking too long to play in Maeda on the left and a Union toe took the ball away from the Japanese international.<\/p>\n
A minute into injury time, the Blues extended their lead via a superb O\u2019Shea strike. Maeda stood up a cross from the left, which deflected off a defender. Keeper Klaus flapped at it under pressure from Clarke and the ball was played out to the Irish international just outside the box on the right from where he smashed the ball past Klaus to his right and into the net.<\/p>\n
The final whistle ending another very promising Town half came moments after the restart, the Blues having been well worth their lead.<\/p>\n
After going behind to the Union goal, the result of being caught asleep as the free-kick was taken, the Blues had to withstand a spell of superiority from the Bundesliga side before equalising through Clarke\u2019s well-worked goal.<\/p>\n
From there, Town were well in control, Union only threatening on the counter-attack via Latte Lath, and taking their chances when they came to comfortably lead at the break.<\/p>\n
The Blues made one change ahead of the second half, Philogene replacing the excellent Maeda, the former Aston Villa man\u2019s first appearance of pre-season following a hamstring issue and plenty of speculation about his future. Union swapped keeper Klaus for Matheo Raab.<\/p>\n
Union struck the first shot after the restart, Livan Burcu shooting deep into the stand behind the goal after O\u2019Shea had half-cleared the initial low ball in from the right.<\/p>\n
Town created their first chance of the second half on 48, Philogene shooting against a defender, the ball reaching Emersonn, whose effort from an angle on the left hit the side-netting.<\/p>\n
Philogene struck another shot from the left on 51, but his effort was too close to Raab and the keeper snaffled the ball comfortably.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, the home side pulled a goal back. Skipper Rani Khedira played a great ball over the Town backline into the area and Juranovic, who had been allowed to break forward untracked by Philogene, deftly lifted his volley over the advancing Scherpen and under the bar.<\/p>\n
On 56, Emersonn did well to get away from his man on the right but was unable to find a defender with his lofted ball towards the unmarked Clarke and Philogene towards the back of the box.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, Greaves did well to get himself across to block Latte Lath\u2019s shot from the edge, the Ivorian having been given space to shoot.<\/p>\n
Just ahead of the hour, Juranovic struck an audacious volley from well out on the right but unsurprisingly 6ft 9in tall Scherpen was able to pluck it out of the air.<\/p>\n
Union subsequently made a quadruple change, before Philogene cut in from the left and hit a trademark effort without troubling Raab.<\/p>\n
On 66, a Union corner fell to Khedira on the edge of the box but the home skipper shot well over when he really ought to have done better.<\/p>\n
Town made a triple change on 67, Davis, Lukic and Emersonn making way for Darnell Furlong, who went to right-back, O\u2019Shea to left centre-half and Greaves to left-back, Cameron Humphreys and Chuba Akpom.<\/p>\n
The Blues made three more changes on 73, Anis Mehmeti, Kasey McAteer and Cedric Kipre replacing Clarke, Walle Egeli and Diop, with the game starting to lose its intensity, while Union also made further subs. O\u2019Shea moved to right centre-half with Kipre to his left.<\/p>\n
Town should have been awarded a penalty in the 76th minute when Mehmeti was upended as he tricked his way into the area but the referee waved away the protests. Moments later, from a corner on the right, the ball ran loose in the area and it appeared impossible that no Blues player was able to smash into the net.<\/p>\n
But the 800 or so Town fans behind the goal didn\u2019t have to wait too long for a fourth goal. Mehmeti lofted a chipped cross from the left to the far post and McAteer volleyed into the ground and past Raab to the keeper\u2019s left.<\/p>\n
The Blues continued to look for goals, a Philogene strike smashing against Akpom when looking like it might be on its way in as the game moved into its final 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea made way for Ben Johnson on 83, the ex-West Ham man going to left-back and Greaves back to left centre-half alongside Kipre.<\/p>\n
On 89, Humphreys was robbed just inside the area on the left but Tim Skarke scuffed his shot wide under pressure from Kipre.<\/p>\n
That was the last action of pre-season, new manager Gary O\u2019Neill celebrating with the Blues support with a fist-pump, his side having ended their preparations with four wins on the bounce.<\/p>\n
Union were probably the best opposition Town faced in the latter stages of pre-season – Osasuna may have been a bigger test earlier on – but the Blues were on top for most of the game aside from a couple of spells and created enough to have scored more goals.<\/p>\n
The team which started is probably largely the one which will line up against Sunderland in the opening Premier League fixture next Saturday with Florentino and Fatawu probably back in the XI if they\u2019re fit enough to do so and perhaps Julio Enciso once his move, and that of Abdoul Ouattara, are completed, which is expected to come early in the week.<\/p>\n
Overall, a promising pre-season from the Blues as players were bedded in as they were signed and players moved on, however, the real test comes next week when the Black Cats, who finished seventh last season, visit Portman Road.<\/p>\n
Union Berlin: Klaus (Raab 46), Khedira (c), Van den Bosch, Friedrich, Kemlein, Burcu, Ansah, Jeong, Rothe, Juranovi\u0107, Latte Lath. Unused: Schafer, Querfeld, Kohn, Haberer, Skarke, Ljubicic, Trimmel, Bogdanovic, Ogbemudia, Sliskovic, Blaszczak, Guther.<\/p>\n
Town: Scherpen, O\u2019Shea (c) (Johnson 83), Diop (Kipre 73), Greaves, Davis (Furlong 67), Lukic (Humphreys 67), Nunez, Walle Egeli (McAteer 73), Clarke (Mehmeti 73), Maeda (Philogene 46), Emersonn (Akpom 67). Unused: Van Oevelen, Walton, Ogbene, Mendel, Button. Att: 12,421 (Town: 800-ish).<\/p>\n
Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n
Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union Berlin 2-4 Ipswich Town – Match ReportSaturday, 15th Aug 2026 16:33 Town completed their pre-season friendly programme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[57759,112,11292,57758,57761,1750,38480,6793,8688,190,31820,3958,57757,3956,57760,38,6036,57762,57764,57763],"class_list":["post-146574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-alf-ramsey","tag-berlin","tag-blogs","tag-bobby-robson","tag-chatroom","tag-football","tag-football-club","tag-football-news","tag-forum","tag-germany","tag-ipswich","tag-ipswich-town","tag-itfc","tag-kieran-mckenna","tag-message-board","tag-news","tag-polls","tag-portman-road","tag-tractor-boys","tag-tractorboys"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117101443252721224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}