Union Berlin take on Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Saturday, with the hosts able to leapfrog their opponents into fifth place in the table with a victory.

Gladbach will travel to Berlin full of confidence, though, after last weekend's thrilling 4-2 victory over Borussia Dortmund.

Match preview

After an unbeaten run of six matches, Union Berlin have since lost their last two matches, with Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Augsburg a particularly disappointing result.

Florian Niederlechner was brought back into Augsburg's XI by Heiko Herrlich, and duly repaid his manager's faith by scoring his first two goals of the season either side of half time. Niederlechner's first was a superb finish into the far corner after two excellent touches helped the ball run nicely into his path, while he could not miss with the second after Andre Hahn's first-time strike had been parried into his path.

Union Berlin were perhaps unfortunate to be defeated, though, with Marcus Ingvartsen levelling proceedings heading into the break before the Denmark international missed a penalty to equalise once again after Niederlchner was adjudged to have illegally pushed an opponent. Liverpool loanee Taiwo Awoniyi was a threat throughout, too, forcing a fine reflex save from the game's ultimate hero: Rafal Gikiewicz.

While Urs Fischer would have undoubtedly felt huge frustration about the result, his side still have a comfortable six-point cushion above the bottom half. Given this is only the club's second ever Bundesliga campaign, a top-half finish would be a fantastic achievement, with the imminent return of Max Kruse from injury likely to provide a shot in the arm in terms of their hopes of doing so.

Gladbach, meanwhile, climbed up to fifth in the table after their thrilling Friday night victory over Dortmund.

Florian Neuhaus thought he had opened the scoring for the hosts within the first minute with a deflected effort, but after a farcically long VAR check, Jonas Hofmann was adjudged to have fouled Jude Bellingham in the build-up. Hofmann made amends with a curling free kick which was directly pinpointed onto Nico Elvedi's head, with the Swiss defender powering his side into the lead.

However, Erling Braut Haaland struck twice in seven minutes to turn the game around, first latching onto Jadon Sancho's delicious through ball in trademark fashion before dinking the ball over Yann Sommer, before swiftly swivelling on the ball and smashing it into the bottom corner.

Poor goalkeeping by Roman Burki allowed Elvedi to double his tally and level proceedings in a crazy first half, before Ramy Bensebaini cut inside onto his left foot and fired the ball into the far corner with his weaker right foot to give Gladbach the lead once again.

Marcus Thuram marked his comeback from suspension to wrap up the three points late on with a superb header from a corner, highlighting Gladbach's growing danger from set pieces. Fischer will be looking for ways of blunting that threat on Saturday for sure.

Union Berlin Bundesliga form: WWDWLL
Union Berlin form (all competitions): LWDWLL

Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form: LWWDWW
Borussia Monchengladbach form (all competitions): WWWDWW

Team News

Union Berlin will be without Christoper Trimmel due to suspension after the wing-back picked up his fifth caution of the season in the defeat to Augsburg.

Kruse, Joel Pohjanpalo and Anthony Ujah will all miss out with injury, but the trio are expected to return to first-team action in the coming weeks.

Gladbach, meanwhile, will travel to Berlin without Valentino Lazaro, Rocco Reitz, Joseph Scally and Mamadou Doucoure.

Rose is boosted by having forwards Thuram and Breel Embolo available once again, though, but the 44-year-old may choose to utilise both from the substitutes' bench, with his attack firing fine without them in recent weeks.

Union Berlin possible starting lineup:
Luthe; Friedrich, Knoche, Schlotterbeck; Gogia, Promel, Andrich, Lenz; Becker, Awoniyi, Ingvartsen

Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Zakaria, Kramer, Neuhaus; Plea, Stindl, Hofmann

We say: Union Berlin 1-2 Borussia Monchengladbach

Gladbach are one of the Bundesliga's form sides at present, so we can envisage them earning a narrow victory on Saturday.

Union Berlin's performances and results have both understandably dropped off a little in recent weeks, with the visitors possessing the firepower to punish them.

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