Union Berlin’s Marie-Louise Eta became the first female head coach to win a match in European football’s top five men’s competitions when she oversaw a 3-1 win against Mainz in the German Bundesliga on Sunday.
Eta raised the air and joined her players to cheer on Union fans as she celebrated her first win in the fourth game of her five-match tenure as interim coach.
«You are happy, you want to win matches. That is always the case, and it was like that today,» she told the broadcaster DAZN when asked if it was a pressure release. “The way it happened was also great, how we managed to pull it off.”
Late goals from Oliver Burke in the 88th minute and Josip Juranovic in injury time turned a draw into a win, lifting Union to 12th in the Bundesliga. Earlier, Mainz’s Sheraldo Becker had scored to cancel out Andrej Ilic’s opener for Union.
It was Union’s first win since March. Eta took over when the club fired Steffen Baumgart last month. She had one draw and two losses before Sunday’s win.
While Eta, an experienced youth and assistant coach, has previously acknowledged that there is a “social impact” in her historic role as head coach, she is keen to emphasize that results come first.
«That wasn’t the point,» she said DAZN on Sunday when asked how she would like people to view her time in leadership. «It was about doing the job as best as possible, getting points, winning games, and that’s what we worked for every day. We invested a lot, so it’s great that we could get the three points here today and show a good performance. I think that’s important for me too.»
Eta’s time as head coach of the Union men’s team ends next week when Union hosts Augsburg in the final match of the season. She has already agreed to take charge of the Union women’s team next season.
The match was interrupted for several minutes in the first half when Union fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch in protest against the competition scheduling.
Mainz, led by former Union coach Urs Fischer, is 10th.
READ: Hansi Flick emotional after Barcelona wins La Liga: It was a tough day for me but I will never forget it
Two goals from Igor Matanovic were not enough on Sunday to prevent Europa League finalist Freiburg from losing 3-2 at Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga.
Bakery Jatta opened the scoring for Hamburg when left unmarked, but Matanovic soon leveled for Freiburg. Goals from Luka Vušković and Fabio Baldé put Hamburg back in control in the second half, and Matanović’s header in the 87th minute proved only a consolation goal for Freiburg.
The loss is a blow to seventh-place Freiburg’s hopes of qualifying for the Conference League via the Bundesliga. Freiburg could still end up in the Champions League if they beat Aston Villa in the Europa League final on May 20. Hamburg moves up one place to eleventh.
The Bundesliga faces a final day relegation battle next week, with three teams with the same number of points trying to survive with one shot at survival.
Heidenheim defeated Cologne 3-1 on Sunday to move up to 17th place, level with Wolfsburg in 16th and St. Pauli in 18th. Midfielder Jan Schöppner scored twice to end a six-month goal drought in the Bundesliga.
The teams in 17th and 18th places are automatically relegated, and the team in 16th place faces a promotion-relegation play-off over two legs against a team from the second division. Wolfsburg and St. Pauli play each other next week, and Heidenheim hosts Mainz.
Heidenheim coach Frank Schmidt has been in charge for 19 years, overseeing promotion from the regional fourth tier and even a European season in the Conference League last season. He has not yet experienced relegation.
Published on May 11, 2026
