Union Berlin boosted their hopes of playing in the Bundesliga for the first time in their history after earning a 2-2 draw at Stuttgart in the first leg of the promotion/relegation play-off. Stuttgart, who came 16th this season having finished just four points adrift of third place in 2017/18, twice took the lead at a sold-out Mercedes-Benz Arena but Union levelled both times. The second leg takes place in Berlin on Monday, where Union have the chance to follow already-promoted Cologne and Paderborn up from the second division. Union had the better of the chances in the opening half-hour with Stuttgart goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler somehow managing to deflect Sebastian Andersson’s close-range effort onto the roof of the net. That advantage lasted less than a minute, however, as Union equalised almost straight from the restart when Suleiman Abdullahi latched onto Andersson’s flick-on before beating Zieler.

Source: Irish Examiner May 23, 2019 20:37 UTC