U19s beat Union Berlin 2-0 | OneFootball

Mike Tullberg's weakened team – in addition to Tyler Meiser, Jonas Feddersen and Diego Ngambia, Samuele Inacio and Luca Reggiani were missing from the starting line-up following their international duty with Italy – needed two Nick Cherny penalties to win this largely one-sided clash, despite creating almost a dozen gilt-edged goalscoring opportunities.

"I saw an outstanding game of football from us when in possession, but I've also never experienced such a plethora of chances. We should have scored six, seven or eight goals by the interval," said Mike Tullberg, who nonetheless made reference to the development process his young team is undergoing.

The spectators at Stadion Rote Erde saw a football match in which BVB forced their opponents onto the back foot and barely gave them a chance to catch their breath. Union's outstanding goalkeeper Jaden Rodtnick kept the score level until the 48th minute, however. Pharell Kegni (11), Nick Cherny (13), Mathis Albert (21), Taycan Etcibasi (33) and Ousmane Diallo (45) all failed to beat Union's top shot-stopper from promising positions. Albert (12) and Elias Benkara (45) also hit the upright and crossbar. It was a penalty (foul on Taycan Etcibasi by Jakob Wiede) that ultimately broke the deadlock: Nick Cherny scored the overdue opener.

Many chances after the break too

With Mainz 05 having claimed a surprising 2-0 win over league leaders Karlsruher SC, Borussia were under pressure not to jeopardise their promising position in the race for first place and in the lead-up to the top-of-the-table clash away to KSC on Wednesday. They approached the challenge against the 'Iron Ones', who had recently sprung a surprise by drawing 1-1 in Leipzig, with the requisite focus. BVB applied pressure through their link-up play, dominated, won challenges and second balls, and got a lot of things right – but lacked coolness, cleverness and decisiveness in front of goal.

Although the visitors contested the match much more evenly after the interval, Borussia continued to create prime opportunities to increase their advantage through Etcibasi (60), Albert (79) and Cherny (79). Only a second penalty, converted by Nick Cherny in the 87th minute to make it 2-0 (handball by Ahmad Badran), removed the last vestiges of doubt that the well-deserved victory might not materialise. It had been under threat only 120 seconds earlier as referee Tim Holsten awarded the Berlin outfit a free-kick on the edge of the box, which Ion Ciobanu fired over the crossbar.

"It was a great game of football, overall, which I have to praise the team for. I hope that we'll get better at converting chances in the next few games," said Tullberg in summary. The U19s will play their rescheduled fixture away to Karlsruher SC on Wednesday (12:00 CEST) and will then face FSV Mainz 05, who have moved up to fourth place with 11 points, on Sunday (kick-off 18:00 CEST).