Union Berlin's women's side made light work of Magdeburg in the Round of 32 of the German Cup, running out 5-0 winners on Saturday at the home ground. The visitors took the tie deep into their own camp and did not look back.
And here's the thing about a scoreline like that — it tells you everything about the gap between the sides on the day. Union arrived with a point to prove after a run of results that had been anything but clean, and they took the opportunity to take them apart.
The visitors came into this fixture having lost three of their last four, including heavy defeats at the hands of Bayern and Cologne. They had also seen themselves edged out by Frankfurt and Freiburg, so this was a chance to turn a corner. They did not just turn a corner; they drove through it.
By then, Magdeburg's recent record offered no reason to expect a different outcome. They had beaten Holstein Kiel 3-0 in their last outing, but before that came defeats to Hamburg on two separate occasions, including a 0-3 loss last season. The form table was not kind.
What stood out was how Union played the second half a man up — not literally, but in spirit. They camped in the final third, gave nothing away at the back, and punished every mistake. Magdeburg handed the ball over far too easily and got hit on the break each time.
The result puts Union firmly in the next round of the competition. For Magdeburg, it is a reminder that cup football has its own rules, and you cannot expect to survive on past results alone. The table goes out of the window in these games.
