Union Berlin were held to a 1-1 draw on Friday evening by RB Leipzig, with a late leveler preventing them from winning their first game of the season.

Union would have felt fortunate to have taken a point away from the Allianz Arena last weekend, as Daniel Adlung's missed penalty saved them from falling to another defeat. Despite the below-par showing, Norbert Düwel kept faith in that squad, and only made one change forced upon him. Toni Leistner came in for Benjamin Kessel, who gave away the aforementioned spot-kick.

Leipzig, on the other hand, did lose on matchday four. They fell to defeat against on-form FC St. Pauli, and Ralf Rangnick was keen to stop them from falling into a rut. Tim Sebastian, Dominik Kaiser, Anthony Jung and Emil Forsberg weren't in the starting eleven and were replaced by Lukas Klostermann, Diego Demme, Rani Khedira and Yussuf Poulsen.

Strong start sees Union edge ahead

Despite enduring a rough start to the season, it was Union and Bobby Wood who had the first real chance of the game. The American shot narrowly wide after Fabio Coltorti had attempt to narrowly the angle, as the ball dribbled agonisingly wide. The main build-up to the game was centred around the Union fans' 15 minutes of protest, observed by every man, woman and child, which was broken on the dot by a deafening noise.

The hosts were dealt a blow soon after, however, and Maximilian Thiel had to be substituted for Raffael Korte with what looked to be tight hamstring. That didn't deter Union and they took a somewhat deserved lead through Sören Brandy. Fabian Schönheim's free-kick was met by Michael Parensen and his header was nodded home by Brandy, who had seemingly escaped the attentions of the entire Leipzig defence to do so.

The Bulls did think that they had found an equaliser from Davie Selke's tap in, after some good play by Marcel Sabitzer, but Ralf Rangnick's side were denied by the offside flag. Neither side could force a way through to goal from there to the half time whistle, with both misplacing the vital pass in the final third.

The surprise exclusion of Forsberg was reversed by Rangnick at half-time and the Swede almost provided the key to unlocking Union's sturdy defence. He wriggled his way through two tackles and shot at goal, only to be denied by an excellent one-on-one stop from Daniel Haas.

Leistner and Union were keen to come forwards themselves but had a similarly tough time in break down their opponents. The former's header didn't trouble Coltorti, while Brandy picked up his fifth yellow card in as many games to rule him out of their next game.

Leipzig's late push pays dividends

The half's major chance came to substitute Zsolt Kalmar, whose free-kick whipped up and over the wall excellently but Haas hurried across his goal to claw it away to safety. Nils Quaschner was thrown on for Rani Khedira in the hope of nicking a goal to level the game, and he did just that.

The youngster got across his man late on and met Forsberg's cross at the near post but the final touch came from the unfortunate Michael Parensen, deflecting it past the helpless Haas. That was the way it stayed, and Union remained winless. Leipzig will be happy to come away with a point given the difficulty they had in breaking down the home defence.