BERLIN: Ten-man Union Berlin were held to a 1-1 home draw by VfL Bochum on Sunday but a point was enough for the club from the capital to move up to third in the Bundesliga standings.

The result moved Union to 52 points from 28 games, one point above RB Leipzig and seven points behind leaders Bayern Munich.

After a scrappy opening half in the rain, Union took the lead on the stroke of halftime when they won a free kick and Croatian right back Josip Juranovic curled the ball through a gap in the defensive wall and into the top corner.

But Bochum equalised 10 minutes into the second half when they won a penalty for a foul by Aissa Laidouni and Kevin Stoeger stepped up to fire the spot kick straight down the middle to make it 1-1.

Union’s day went from bad to worse minutes later when Paul Jaeckel received his second yellow card, 11 minutes after his first, to receive his marching orders.

With five minutes left, Union had a glorious chance to go 2-1 up but Kevin Behrens failed to convert Sheraldo Becker cross as he sent his header wide.

The draw kept Bochum in the 15th place with three points between them and the relegation zone.

In Sunday’s late game, Wolfsburg dented Bayer Leverkusen’s hopes of an unlikely return to Champions League football, holding Xabi Alonso’s in-form side to a 0-0 draw at home.

Leverkusen had been in the relegation zone when Alonso took over as coach earlier in the year. Since then they have won five league matches in a row to sit in the Europa League placings.

Leverkusen’s Sardar Azmoun rattled the bar after 27 minutes and Moussa Diaby was a constant source of danger for the visitors, a long-range bullet forcing a two-handed save from Wolfsburg goalie Koen Casteels with 20 minutes remaining.

Casteels again intervened with just one minute left, rushing off his line to stifle Amine Adli, who was one-on-one with the ‘keeper, securing a point for the home side.

Earlier on Sunday, second-half goals from Roland Sallai and Lucas Hoeler lifted Freiburg to a 2-1 comeback win at Werder Bremen.

Trailing 1-0 after former Freiburg striker Maximilian Philipp gave Bremen the lead a minute into the second half, Freiburg scored two goals in quick succession to turn the game on its head.

The win took Freiburg to fifth, one point behind RB Leipzig.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023