Union Berlinvs
Eintracht FrankfurtThere are nights at An der Alten Försterei that feel written in advance, and Saturday was one of them — only nobody could have scripted Younes Ebnoutalib scoring a hat-trick and still leaving Berlin with nothing.
Union Berlin drew first blood in the 3rd minute. Josip Juranovic found Emmanuel Latte Lath, who powered a header home and gave the home crowd exactly the start they wanted. It looked like the night was setting up nicely for Union.
Then Ebnoutalib happened.
The Frankfurt forward equalized in the 10th minute, and before anyone could process it, he scored again in the 11th. Two goals in sixty seconds, and suddenly Union were behind. Ebnoutalib picked up a yellow card immediately after his second — the emotion of the moment getting the better of him — and Jeremiaha Maluze followed him into the referee's book two minutes later. The game had gone from orderly to completely unhinged in the space of about ten minutes.
A Long Wait for the Next Act
After that frenetic opening, the match settled into something more familiar. Frankfurt held the ball — finishing with 51.6% possession and a pass accuracy of 80% — but Union were the more threatening side in terms of volume, putting 19 shots on goal to Frankfurt's 12. The problem for Union was that Frankfurt's goalkeeper was sharp, racking up eight saves on the night. Union had none. Read that how you like.
Michel Aebischer was booked for Union in the 23rd minute as the fouls piled up, but neither side could alter the scoreline before the break.
Ebnoutalib completed his hat-trick in the 67th minute, this time with an assist from Elias Baum. At 3-1, Frankfurt looked in control, and en qué clavo se encontraba Union Berlin — a mountain to climb with under half an hour left.
But Leopold Querfeld pulled one back in the 79th minute, again with Juranovic providing the assist, again with a header. Juranovic was quietly running the show from wide, and Querfeld's goal made it 3-2 and suddenly very loud inside the stadium. Zeno Van Den Bosch was booked in the 81st minute as Union pushed forward with increasing desperation, and Frankfurt's Raphael Onyedika and Otávio were both cautioned in the final ten minutes as the visitors tried to slow the game down.
It wasn't enough. In the 92nd minute, Tim Skarke collected an assist from Querfeld — who had now contributed a goal and an assist in the final stretch — and finished to make it 3-3. The place erupted.
Our pre-match read couldn't separate these two sides, and cabal, the match reflected exactly that — a near-even contest that produced six goals and could have gone either way.
Frankfurt will feel the loss of two points more keenly. Ebnoutalib gave them everything a forward can give, and they still couldn't hold it. Union, meanwhile, showed the kind of refusal to quit that their home fans have come to expect. The question now is whether Frankfurt's recent form — one win in their last four before this — is a warning sign, or just noise.
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