Bottom side Bochum secured only their second win of the Bundesliga season with a hard-earned 2-1 victory over front-runners Union Berlin on Sunday.

Bochum staged a courageous performance from the starting whistle and made Union's life difficult.

For most of the time, both sides stood firm in defence. Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann denied Jordan Siebatcheu in the 37th minute, before Jordi Osei-Tutu couldn't beat Union keeper Frederik Ronnow at the other end six minutes later.

Bochum opened the scoring just before half-time, as Philipp Forster's corner allowed Philipp Hofmann to nod home.

The Eisernen couldn't respond after the restart as Bochum staged a well-positioned defence and lurked for counter-attacking opportunities.

Bochum's strategy paid off in the 71st minute when Christopher Antwi-Adjei teed up for Gerrit Holtmann, who finished off a textbook counter to double the advantage.

Seven minutes later, the capital side had a golden chance to halve the deficit, but Milos Pantovic's penalty was saved by Riemann.

Pantovic remained in the thick of things and reduced the arrears in the dying minutes after latching onto a loose ball from inside the box.

Bochum's defence stood firm for the remainder of the encounter and condemned Union to their second defeat of the campaign.

"We couldn't respond today. We were too harmless in the final third. That's a deserved win for Bochum after 90 minutes. We must draw conclusions and learn from this defeat," said Union Berlin head coach Urs Fischer.

"Today we managed to keep building pressure from the first minutes. The team showed extreme intensity and passion. I think everyone in the stadium noticed that we really wanted this win," said Bochum head coach Thomas Letsch.

Elsewhere, Wilfried Kanga's late decider helped Hertha Berlin overpower struggling Schalke 2-1.

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