Hertha Berlin vs Union Berlin

Olympiastadion is the venue as relegation-threatened Hertha Berlin and title hopefuls Union Berlin lock horns in a lopsided Bundesliga showdown.

It’s been a humiliating Bundesliga start to the new calendar year for perennial relegation contenders Hertha, as they followed up a 3-1 battering at Bochum with an embarrassing 5-0 home defeat to Wolfsburg in midweek league action. Under-pressure manager Sandro Schwarz is starting to feel the heat, with ‘Die Alte Dame’ sliding to the drop zone, two points adrift of safety. After conceding eight goals in their first two Bundesliga fixtures of a new calendar year for the first time in their top-flight history, Hertha couldn’t have hoped for a more challenging task to embark on a much-needed resurgence. Indeed, they’ve lost their last four encounters against Union Berlin in all competitions, conceding an alarming average of three goals per game in the process.

In the meantime, visiting Union Berlin have hit the ground running since the calendar year flipped to 2023, winning both Bundesliga outings this year ‘to one,’ including a come-from-behind 2-1 triumph at Werder Bremen in midweek. In stark contrast to their sublime form in 2023, the visitors had entered the mid-season break on a run of three straight winless league games (D1, L2). That’s arguably the main reason they start this round three points behind table-topping Bayern Munich. Yet ‘Die Eisernen’ will face a piece of unwanted history in Berlin, as they’ve won none of their three previous fixtures at the start of the second half of a Bundesliga season (D1, L2). Moreover, they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last seven Bundesliga contests, accounting for their longest such run since March 2022.