Kamber was typically quick in the tackle as she got in, snapping at Linda Dallmann’s heels; Samantha Steuerwald, too, was quickly onto Barbara Dunst’s diagonal, into the box. Cara Bösl, returning to the side after her injury, held Edna Imade’s header with certain, characteristic ease.

After eight minutes, normal service resumed – or so we thought. Bernadette Amani mishit her shot from a corner into the box. Scuffed, it bounced off the out-struck leg of Judith Steinert into the path of Imade, who stroked it home, delighted with her unexpected gift.

But it seemed that the charity wasn’t just going one way. Because within 90 seconds of the goal, Sophie Weidauer barged a slumbering Dunst off the ball as she dawdled back towards her own half. Union’s striker was suddenly running alone towards Ena Mahmutovic in the Bayern goal, but she still had over half the pitch to go. She took one, three, five touches as she ran, before scoring, powering the ball past the keeper’s outstretched leg for the equaliser. 

The scores level again; Bayern needed a moment to realise that these upstarts were going toe to toe with them. ‘Us?’ you could almost see them ask. The presumptive as well as reigning champions were stunned, by the crowd as well as their opponents. Dallmann flashed a drive over the bar, and when they tried to weave a triangle or two around the edge of the box, Steuerwald was in, quick as a flash, to break it up. Momoko Tanikawa tried one from the edge of the box, but Bösl took it easily, despite the flick the ball took on its way to her.

Union weren’t just fearless, they also had a clear plan, and Eileen Campbell was almost away after 20 minutes onto a long ball, though this time Magdalena Eriksson stood firm in her path. Heiseler was put away, too, five minutes later, and Amani took the yellow card for bringing the captain down before she could get away.

Bayern were seeing plenty more of the ball, but still they were largely reduced to pot-shots. Dallmann hit across the box, Bösl came out but couldn’t reach it; Carolin Simon put a shot wide. Then Bösl made her best stop of the half, springing sharply to her right to punch Dallmann’s drive away

Yet, still, Union posed danger every time they countered, and Eurlings won a corner when her attempted ball to the free Weidauer was cut out. Campbell and Weidauer then chased Magdalena Eriksson down mercilessly, hunting as a pair, forcing her to pass back to Mahmutovic, who, then put out for a throw, under more pressure from the Union forward line. Stanway would clatter the flying Eurlings before the half was out,

At the other end, the excellent Tanikawa found Ballisager, but there was Judith Steinert in the way once again, stopping the attack before it had begun. Their frustration was starting to show, and Eriksson got away with a telling off from referee, Davina Lutz, when she blocked Bösl as she looked to kick out from her hands.

With the half almost up, it was the hosts who were looking to impose themselves more and more, and Weidauer was a toenail away from reaching Tanja Pawollek’s impudent pass, chipped over the top of the Bayern defence.

Bayern were out early onto the pitch after the break, ahead of the home side; usually it is the other way around here, and it looked like a statement of intent. They won their next corner 20 seconds later, as Steinert again got in the way of a Dallmann cross. She was proving to be quite the thorn in the guests’ side, making up for her, helpless, part in the opener. She was diligent and dogged and watchful. When Stanway wriggled away from Eurlings a few minutes later on the Bayern right, she was there again to step in, to sweep up the problem.

But her constant interventions were a sign that Bayern were turning the screw, and sure enough, Dunst put them back in the lead after 50 minutes with a lovely shot from distance. On the turn, she whipped it low and hard past Bösl, bending just away from the keeper’s outstretched fingertips, inside the left-hand post.

Bösl wasn’t at fault for either goal, so far, and she reacted well when caught going the other way from Dallmann’s awkward free kick, stopping it with her first touch, recovering it with her second. But Bayern were now largely in control of things, and even when Anna Weiß broke up the right, Lutz blew her whistle for an earlier infraction, despite the clear advantage being with the full-back as she advanced up the wing. 

With an hour gone, Ailien Poese made her first substitution, taking off the captain, Heiseler - possibly with half an eye on that early booking - replacing her with the former Bayern youth, Nele Bauereisen. But showing the power and depth that Bayern possess, Klara Bühl and two-time European footballer of the year, Pernille Harder came on at about the same time for Dallmann and Tanikawa. They’d be joined by German and Italian internationals, Giulia Gwinn and Arianna Caruso, before the game was up

Still Union battled, even in the face of the guests’ extraordinary firepower. When Harder robbed Pawollek, Tysiak stood in the way, and when Dunst paused, Steinert was there to pick her pocket, finding Eurlings. Weidauer, too, was immense, winning Union’s first corner after the break with 20 minutes to go.

Poese made her next changes soon after, with Jenny Hipp and Naika Reissner replacing Steinert and Campbell. But it was two players who had been there the whole game long who would draw Union level, and in some style too.

Kamber started the move, finding Bauereisen, and continuing her run towards goal. Bauereisen passed to Weidauer, who picked up the ball just outside the box. She spotted Kamber, still going, and returned the ball with a delightful, switched diagonal over ten yards, into the box, perfectly weighted, wonderfully placed. Kamber’s first time shot was unstoppable, left-footed, and rising inside the near post.

With under ten minutes remaining, that call-and-response from the terraces came back, louder and quicker than before. They bellowed it out, but their cocksure joy wasn’t to last. Bühl clipped a cross back from the byline to Gwinn who side-footed it first time, back over Bösl.

Bösl somehow tipped Harder’s shot onto the post shortly afterwards, and she’d make a better stop from Bühl before time was up, somehow stopping her effort, down to her left, but the Union fans were more worried by the sight of Pawollek, helped off the pitch, one-legged, in clear pain. She had been instrumental in their resistance today, just as she had been ever since her return from injury earlier in the season.

With the final whistle blown, and the guests crowned as champions, again, dancing in the ever-lengthening shadows of the Alte Försterei, few would argue that Bayern didn’t deserve it. They remain the best side in the country.

But they had been made to work harder tonight for it, than they had almost all season, and it shows much of this Union side that Weidauer talked of her disappointment at the result. Back before Christmas, Bayern had blown them away. Those days, however, are long gone.