After being destroyed 5-0 at Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday, Union Berlin was unable to regain the top spot in the Bundesliga standings.
Union, who had been leading the Bundesliga standings since early September, gave up five goals in the second half as Leverkusen put on their best display under manager Xabi Alonso.
Robert Andrich, a former Union midfielder, tapped in a corner to give the home team the lead after the first half ended scoreless.
Leverkusen’s French forward Moussa Diaby hit the visitors twice on the counter in less than sixty seconds as Union pushed forward hoping to replicate the heroics of last week’s comeback victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach, increasing his team’s lead to 3-0 after just 58 minutes.
Czech striker Adam Hlozek scored his first Bundesliga goal since arriving from Sparta Prague in the summer to make it 4-0, before Mitchell Bakker added a fifth late to round out a resounding home win.
Union had only given up nine league goals in 12 games entering the game, but they gave up more than half of that total in just 30 minutes.
Bundesliga underdogs Union suffered their third defeat of the year, while Leverkusen triumphed for the third time in a dismal season.
When Freiburg hosts Cologne in the late game on Sunday, they will have the opportunity to move up to second place.
Player kicked in the face by his own physio
On Saturday, VfL Bochum suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat at Dortmund. Things don’t seem good for the newly promoted team, who have only won two of their last thirteen games while losing ten and drawing one.
In the second half, the situation for the team became almost absurd. In the 76th minute, as two Dortmund players (Cristian Gamboa and Anthony Losilla) attempted to thwart a potentially dangerous Dortmund counterattack, the score was already 3-0.
Following the hard blow, both players fell to the ground, and the referee quickly called a halt to play so that they could receive medical attention.
But, as the medic ran over to Losilla, he slipped over and ended up kicking the player in the head. Fortunately, he was just wearing flat trainers and not studs, meaning that blow was softened slightly.
