A choreo the height and width of the Waldseite dominated kick off in Köpenick, a farewell to a tumultuous, and ultimately successful season for Union. A sea of flags behind, a huge figure in the middle billowed in the wind, lit up by the sunshine. “Union never give up” it read, with clenched fists as punctuation points at the beginning and end.

It summed up so much that had led to this point perfectly, especially after the poignance of the goodbyes given to Jérôme Roussillon, Alexander Schwolow, Kevin Volland, Andrej Ilić and Wooyeong Jeong before the start, but then so did the way that Tom Rothe grappled for the ball, winning it on the floor under the feet of Paul Wanner after ten minutes.

This was how Union had been able to equal their record unbeaten run in the Bundesliga of eight games, up to today… But all runs must come to an end. It wasn’t that Union gave up, more that Heidenheim fought tooth and nail, and took their chances when they came. Their three points here meant that automatic relegation was no longer possible.

At first, it seemed that it would be the hosts who would come out on top. At least initially. Rani Khedira pushed high immediately, as did Tom Rothe and Andrej Ilić, while Benedict Hollerbach and László Bénes flickered, the former rolling the latter with the cutest of backheels. 

Kevin Vogt outpaced Omar Traore in a footrace back towards Frederik Rönnow’s goal, and Khedira almost set Ilic away with the sweetest of passes, but it was the guests who scored first.

Jan Schöppner found, inside right, to cross low and hard into the box, but the ball evaded all and, despite Union’s efforts, it reached Marvin Pieringer who rolled it back into the path of Adrian Beck to sweep home from by the penalty spot.

Stung, Bénes squeezed off a left-footed effort, off balance, the swung out and away, past Frank Feller’s left hand upright. Trimmel hit a fine volley at waist height that a flying Feller managed to tip over the to safety.

But Heidenheim were fighting for their lives, and Bundesliga survival, and the captain, Trimmel did well to nudge Wanner off the ball as he set himself to shoot from the six-yard box.

Union still had most of the ball, if not the better of the scoreline against solid and well organised opponents, however, and after half an hour Bénes, Ilić and Hollerbach combined again, firing the ball between them, one-touch, but Hollerbach couldn’t turn past his man towards goal. Niklas Dorsch had to give everything to chase down Trimmel as he marauded up the right, at full stretch, belying the years in his legs. 

And despite the yellow card he’d received, disbelievingly, shortly before, Querfeld robbed Frans Krätzig elegantly, laying the ball off behind him for Danilho Doekhi with the back of his heel. Still, Rönnow had to be aware enough with just over five minutes to play of the half to clear high and wide when Querfeld seemed unsure of whether to come or go for a ball that dropped between them.

Half time came without further drama. For Union, indeed, there would be little more at all. 

Baumgart changed things at the break, bringing Marin Ljubičić on for Ilić in a like-for-like swap, but it was Bénes who was first to make an impression, showing the quickness of foot to turn Dorsch inside out, halfway inside the Heidenheim half. The Slovakian international then smashed a ball on the half-volley up and over the bar. 

Beck would get the next chance, but he dragged his shot wide when he had time to spare to compose himself. Querfeld was up next, suddenly advancing with the ball at his toe, the crowd suddenly urging him to shoot, as he had with his astonishing finish against Stuttgart a couple of weeks before. Time, however, was not something he had and the gap ahead of him was quickly snapped shut.

Just as Union had gone two down last week, they would do so again, ten minutes into the half as Schöppner bowed his head to nod the ball past Querfeld before stretching out to stab the ball past the helpless Rönnow.

Then, a glimmer, again. Just as they had come back against Bremen, Union seemed to have a toe back in the game as Janik Haberer has the ball in the back of the net. But with grim inevitability the re-start was paused as the video was checked. To the stadium’s great disapproval, it was ruled off with Hollerbach adjudged offside in the buildup.

As golden sunshine poured down onto the Alte Försterei pitch, Baumgart made his next changes, taking off Trimmel, Vogt and Rothe, for Josip Juranović, Tim Skarke and David Preu. The effect was almost immediate as Ljubičić lunged for a low cross that raced ahead of his outstretched boot by half an inch. He struck the ground in frustration, certain of the chance that had flashed before him like a premonition. 

Heidenheim were to have further chances, and they won a corner as Krätzig smashed one off Preu’s boot and out for a corner, Rönnow making another one of his showreel of reflex stops on the line. Beck drove the rebound that ultimately came his way high over the bar.

Union’s final substitution came with 20 minutes to go when Bénes made way for Andras Schäfer, but as Wanner had the travelling fans briefly in delirium - as they believed his shot had gone in and not shaken up the side-netting – Beck would do so for real when he made it 3-0, reaching the ball at the same time as Doekhi. Rönnow had no chance at his right-hand post.

The final ten minutes were played out with the Heidenheim players packing their half, and the entire crowd singing as one, the traditional call and response to the tune of “We love you Union, we do,” the flags returned, the atmosphere as jubilant as if they’d won. Just as they roared when the academy product, Preu, cut inside and tried to bend one inside the top corner with five minutes left to play.

It would have been the finest of denouements, but it wasn’t to be. The run had come to an end, the record of eight unbeaten remained. But so did the love in the packed-out terraces. They’ll be back for another Bundesliga season next year.

"Heidenheim were more determined to give it their all. We talked during the week about staying focused, even though there was no clear goal anymore. That didn't work out, and so the opponent was better in many respects. With and without the ball, it wasn't our best game." 

"There were enough other teams in the league who had something to play for today. That makes the defeat all the more frustrating. On top of that, you don't really want to say goodbye like this in your last home game of the season. Heidenheim were simply better at the basics of football today: tackling, intensity, compactness. We lacked all of that." 

"We had planned something different today, but we weren't able to impose our game. In the end, Heidenheim played well and definitely deserved the win today. They exposed our weaknesses, which is obviously disappointing for us. Next time, we want to be the team that does better than the opposition."