Away parties continue with Kiel’s historic win | OneFootball

Following DFB’s final decision to award Bochum three points for the match-interrupted draw, Union Berlin are slightly dragged into the race to avoid relegation. Meanwhile, Kiel sit bottom of the standings with all their three wins coming at home.

Both coaches made a couple of unforced changes from last weekend’s actions. Timo Becker and summer signing Max Geschwill are the new faces from Marcel Rapp’s starting XI in the home defeat to champions Bayer Leverkusen. Meanwhile, Steffen Baumgart added a third center-back Leopold Querfeld while Marin Ljubicic takes Andrej Ilic’s place up front.

With the 6-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund fresh in the memory, the hosts were in desperate need of a strong start. However, as expected, it was a scrappy affair in the first 40 minutes. The closest either side came to open the scoring was when Geschwill nearly beat his own goalkeeper Timon Weiner in the 12th minute.

Union dominated possession with Tom Rothe, who played a big part in Kiel’s promotion season, consistently showed his presence from the left flank. The cellar-dweller had a nervy start before registering the game’s first attempt through Nicolai Remberg.

And, minutes before the half-time break, the guests broke the deadlock with Becker starting the move after intercepting Union’s dangerous attack. The former Schalke defender followed it up with a surging run to set up Kiel’s dangerman Shūto Machino, who then tied up Armin Gigović’s fourth goal of the season.

The goal meant Kiel scored in every away game this season – a feat only matched by Liverpool in Europe’s top-five leagues – while they’re still waiting for a first win on the road. With all the prior seven games of the weekend ended with victories to visiting teams, Rapp’s side certainly had further motivation to get out of Bundesliga’s basement.

Baumgart made his first substitution at the half-time break with Ilic replacing Ljubicic. The Serbian striker nearly made an immediate impact, but Weiner was alert to stop the effort. Kiel’s goalkeeper also prevented another own-goal when he parried away Remberg’s inadvertent kick.

Much to the delight of Rapp, Kiel managed to halt Union’s momentum after the 50th minute, however. If anything, they had the next telling chance with another Becker-Machino linkup setting a shooting opportunity for Norwegian midfielder Magnus Knudsen before Phil Harres’ goal chalked off for an offside call on substitute Lewis Holtby.

Somehow, Kiel continued to fashion the game’s best chances with Machino hitting the woodwork after a lapse of concentration in Union’s defense. There was slight improvement from the hosts in the final 15 minutes with Baumgart making all his five substitutions relatively early.

One of his substitutes, Jérôme Roussillon, lined up for a shot late in the game before Marvin Schulz’s crucial intervention. Fredrik Rønnow went for an injury-time corner-kick, but the hosts were poor from set-pieces all game. That summed up Union’s night as they succumbed to a third successive defeat.

While the result goes down as a first-ever away win for Bundesliga’s debutant, there is also a potential for another unique record. A Bundesliga record of away wins was set on the 6th matchday of the 2019-20 season when Borussia Dortmund (2-2 draw vs. Bremen) were the only home team avoiding defeat.

If Freiburg succeed in Augsburg, we’ll have a first Bundesliga matchday where all the visiting teams come away with three points.