{"id":73005,"date":"2026-05-01T20:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/73005\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T20:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:20:15","slug":"union-berlin-vs-1-fc-koln-preview-both-sides-creeping-into-bundesliga-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/73005\/","title":{"rendered":"Union Berlin vs 1. FC K\u00f6ln preview: Both sides creeping into Bundesliga safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Union Berlin<\/p>\n

Union Berlin have been in poor form either side of their managerial change which saw Marie-Louise Eta replace Steffen Baumgart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They have picked up one point out of their last five Bundesliga ties, including two back-to-back losses including an away 3-1 loss to RB Leipzig last weekend.<\/p>\n

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On the other hand, Union Berlin have scored in every home Bundesliga game since January against Dortmund so this will provide some hope coming up against a weak K\u00f6ln defence.<\/p>\n

Alongside this, Union have the benefit of not having to face K\u00f6ln’s striker Ragnar Ache who is injured <\/a>and missed the K\u00f6ln – Leverkusen game last weekend where the Rhine side were unable to take their chances and lost 2-1 at home.<\/p>\n

Previous encounters against K\u00f6ln play in the German capital city side’s favour too as they have never lost against K\u00f6ln at home in the league since their promotion to the Bundesliga in 2019.<\/p>\n

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Ahead of the game, Union coach Eta said: \u201cIn such a phase like now in the season there is always going to be pressure somewhere. This is something that we and the players know. \u201d<\/p>\n

Team news<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Frederik R\u00f8nnow is out with a groin injury and backup goalie Raab joins him in the injury list. Wooyeong Jeong is a doubt for Saturday’s tie.<\/p>\n

Predicted lineup (3-4-2-1) right to left:<\/p>\n

Klaus – Doekhi, Querfeld, Leite – Trimmel, Khedira, Kemlein, K\u00f6hn – Sch\u00e4fer, Burke – Ili\u0107<\/p>\n

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FC K\u00f6ln<\/p>\n

K\u00f6ln failed to pick up any points against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend, despite their high chance creation rate in a 2-1 loss.<\/p>\n

This signals their first loss under head coach Ren\u00e9 Wagner who was announced to have replaced Steffen Baumgart in March.<\/p>\n

For K\u00f6ln, they will hope to end a 11 game winless run in the Bundesliga but will need to work on their defence which has conceded at least two goals in their last five league ties.<\/p>\n

Spearheading their attack is 19-year-old Said El Mala who will look to bounce back after a huge chance missed last weekend at 0-0 against Bayer Leverkusen in the first minutes.<\/p>\n

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Adding to this, the young Germany under-21 international will look to end a four game streak without an open play goal in his new position under Ren\u00e9 Wagner where he plays in a two striker position.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the tie, K\u00f6ln coach Wagner said: \u201cI myself have experienced \u00a0in Berlin what sort of a force the team can conjure up. But we had a great game against Bayer (Leverkusen) and we want to work on giving us a great game against Union Berlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team news<\/p>\n

K\u00f6ln are without Ragnar Ache who is out for the rest of the season with an injury and Timo H\u00fcbers and Luca Kilian join him with season-long injuries. Isak J\u00f3hannesson is out with a yellow card suspension.<\/p>\n

Predicted lineup (4-4-2):<\/p>\n

Schw\u00e4be – Sebulonsen, Simpson-Pusey, \u00d6zkacar, Lund – Maina, Kau\u00df, Martel, Kaminski, El Mala, Waldschmidt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union Berlin Union Berlin have been in poor form either side of their managerial change which saw Marie-Louise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[7344,112,2355,25876,39085,190,39553,20703,20701,30812,39549,39551,32805,39552,20700,39548,7345,39089,20698,34890,2353,39550],"class_list":{"0":"post-73005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-bayer-leverkusen","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-bundesliga","11":"tag-dortmund","12":"tag-fc-koln","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-isak","15":"tag-kemlein","16":"tag-khedira","17":"tag-leite","18":"tag-luca-kilian","19":"tag-maina","20":"tag-marie-louise-eta","21":"tag-martel","22":"tag-querfeld","23":"tag-ragnar-ache","24":"tag-rb-leipzig","25":"tag-said-el-mala","26":"tag-steffen-baumgart","27":"tag-trimmel","28":"tag-union-berlin","29":"tag-waldschmidt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116501179641972314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73005","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=73005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}