Werder Bremen: Grüll's dream goal decides match against Union

Thanks to a stunning goal from Marco Grüll, Werder Bremen continued its Bundesliga upswing. The Austrian scored the winner for the Green-Whites in the 72nd minute of their lackluster 1-0 (0-0) victory against Union Berlin, stealing the show from Bremen's top signing Victor Boniface in his starting debut.

Union suffered another setback a week after their 3-1 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Before the match, there was a minute's silence at the Weserstadion for Bremen's former league player and World Cup runner-up, Max Lorenz. The 19-time international player died at the age of 86, as the club announced a few hours before kickoff, citing his family. In his honor, the hosts wore black armbands.

Lorenz won the DFB-Pokal with Werder Bremen in 1961 and the German championship four years later. He was also part of the World Cup squad in 1966 and 1970. He did not play in the finals in England, when Germany lost the legendary World Cup final. Four years later, Lorenz came on as a substitute in the 1-0 win in the semi-final against Uruguay. He followed the action in Bremen until the very end.

His successors in the green and white jerseys offered the 41,800 spectators in the sold-out Weserstadion a meager football fare for a long time. Even so, Werder coach Horst Steffen had named Boniface in the starting lineup for the first time this season. The striker had moved from Bayer Leverkusen to Werder Bremen on the last day of the transfer window in the summer, with a significant physical deficit, and had only made a few brief appearances so far.

"Now is the time to put him on the field," Steffen explained Boniface's inclusion in the starting eleven on Sky before the match. There were also signals from the team that the striker from Leverkusen's 2024 championship team deserved a chance.

Boniface, however, was unable to capitalize on this. Although the Nigerian showed flashes of his talent a few times, the attacker was unable to truly make an impact. Boniface only threatened once with a long-range shot in the 15th minute.

Since both teams largely neutralized each other, the spectators saw a match without any major highlights. The majority of the chances, albeit not top-class ones, were created by the visitors from Berlin before the break. They started with two former Bremen players, Oliver Burke and Derrick Köhn. The best opportunity fell to Danilho Doekhi shortly before the break, when a header went just wide of the Bremen goal.

Even after the break, the level remained manageable. Bremen found virtually no way to break through Berlin's tight defense. It took a brilliant shot from Grüll to put the North Germans in the lead. The Austrian curled the ball beautifully into the top corner.

RND/dpa