It was freezing in the Stadion An der Alten Försterei on Friday evening as 1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team returned to the Bundesliga. The hastily laid, new pitch looked tinged with silver frost, the incredible crowd wrapped up to the nines. But compared to the malevolent wind, the result felt far more bitter. At the final whistle the players slumped to the floor, stunned. They had led since the 39^th minute and been a player up since the 68^th. As the shockwaves still echoed out out following Kristin Kögel’s 92^nd minute winner, neither they nor the astonishing, 6,000-plus crowd could believe their eyes.

Union had been superb in places, but it wasn’t to be.

For so long, it had seemed that this game was only going one way.  Despite the excitement at the end of a winter break that had dragged on forever, the fans were silent for the first 14 minutes – one for each of the first division’s teams- in protest at the proposed continuation of Monday night games. It was the beginning of a league-wide protest.

Still, Union started off on the front foot, Anna Weiß – the only player in short sleeves apart from Samatha Steuerwald – found Dina Orschmann who found Ida Heikkinen advancing up the left. The corner she won saw a first touch from new signing, Amber Tysiak, and how close it was to going into the history books, as she flicked the ensuing corner backwards with a deft flick of the head; only just cleared off the line as it seemed destined to drop just under the bar.

They’d win another four corners before five minutes was up; Leverkusen just couldn’t get the ball away, but the impressive Tysiak would make her next vital intervention at the other end after Caroline Kehrer barged Heikkinen off the ball and crossed. She already looked at home in central defence next to Samantha Steuerwald, clearing up when Kehrer drifted into a dangerous position as Leverkusen settled.

Importantly, though, the hosts had avoided the disastrous start that saw them two down in six minutes in the last encounter between the sides. Julia Mickenhagen would have the first real effort for the guests just after 10 minutes, but never really got much on her shot from outside the box, and it rolled harmlessly wide of Cara Bösl’s goal.

Leverkusen were seeing far more of the ball as the half wore on, but Union remained firm and organised, undaunted; the return of Tanja Pawollek adding strength to the middle,  the determined, dogged Orschmann and Halverkamps constantly tracking back to support their full-backs.

Union were patient, waiting for their chance, putting together moves of their own. After 25 minutes Orschmann found Sophie Weidauer in space in the centre-circle. She backheeled it artfully to Pawollek, whose long ball was headed just out of the path of the breaking Heiseler.

Bösl was excellent. She held Katharina Piljic’s drive well at chest height, as she picked up Kehrer’s flicked header at her back post without fuss. And when Ruby Grant had time to pick her spot, Tysiak got back into place just in time to knock it over the bar. Piljic then hit another on the turn as Leverkusen started to up the pressure around the half hour mark, but again Union’s keeper was equal to it.

But Union countered immediately, and after Lisa Heiseler’s free kick, Steuerwald saw her superb, flicked header beat Anne Moll, but come back off the inside of the back post. It had been a sign, and they took the lead a minute later when, from a wicked, deep, inswinging corner, Orschmann rose at the back post to head home to give the hosts the lead.

Union were suddenly all over Leverkusen, with Orschmann driving just wide and Heiseler’s clever low free kick catching everyone out, if also her teammates. Campbell was slotted through by Orschmann on 40 minutes, but the linesman’s flag went up just as she was about to shoot, a whisker offside.

But Leverkusen weren’t going down without a fight, and Bösl made a brilliant stop, sticking out an arm at the last, as Juliette Vidal seemed certain to score from five yrads out, hitting her shot first time.

As Weidauer passed back to Steuerwald from the Leverkusen byline following the next Union attack, she put her palms down. Be calm, she was telling her teammates, play it cool. The break was looming.

Ailien Poese made a single change at the break, with Hannah Eurlings making her own long-awaited debut since her signing in the summer, coming on for Weiß. And she was quickly into the action after Weidauer robbed Vidal in the middle, finding Campbell who played the ball quickly out left to the Belgian international.

Again, though the guests tried to drag themselves back into the game, first as the substitute, Kristin Kögel, almost found the charging Kehrer in the box, then as Kehrer shot too close to Bösl.

Eurlings slipped a beautiful ball into Campbell, before Steuerwald seemed shocked not have turned her header in, while somehow not crashing into the post at the same time.

As play stopped with Piljic on the ground after Weidauer’s tackle, both players fighting for the loose ball, the Union players came together in small groups; Pawollek and Tysiak, Halverkamps and Weidauer, plotting and planning, discussing their next moves. When stood over the next free kick, Heiseler and Tysiak schemed over who was to take it, with the latter eventually beating the wall, if not Moll who held firm

The game was far more open now than in the first half, and both Carlotta Wamser and Kehrer looked on in disbelief as neither could get a decent shot off when well placed in front of Bösl’s goal. The Union stopper then did well to get down to stop Kehrer’s next drive from outside the box, diving low and to her left. She did even better with 25 minutes to go when Wamser seemed certain to run onto the end of a fantastic ball that split the Union defence in two, but Bösl raced out of her coal, and fingertipped the ball just out of the charging striker’s path.

Poese made three changes almost immediately, bringing on Nele Bauereisen, Jenny Hipp and the next debutant, Lia Kamber, for Orschmann, Pawollek and Heiseler. But they had barely got moving when Leverkusen were reduced to ten, as Grant saw a second yellow card, having got the first when she caught Campbell at head height.

Outnumbered, the tireless Kehrer could do nothing when she picked up the next pass in the Union box. Kamber then showed quick feet, interchanging passes with Eurlings, desperately calling for the return ball

But then, with 76 minutes gone, Leverkusen got a lifeline as Bauereisen caught Wamser on the edge of the box. It seemed benign enough, but the free kick was given. Well inside the D. Kehrer made a dummy run before Vanessa Fudalla clipped it over the wall and to the unsighted Bösl’s left. She is Leverkusen’s top scorer for a reason; it was a clever, finely taken set-piece.

The impressive pairing of Kamber and Eurlings again combined, this time almost sending Campbell away; she had a better chance when again played in by Eurlings, but couldn’t get enough on her shot as she tried to hit it with the outside of her boot on the turn. Still, they couldn’t break through, and the crowd grew increasingly incensed as referee, Riem Hussein, blew up the guest’s way for the smallest of perceived infringements.

Still Union poured forwards, but things just wouldn’t go their way, Bauereisen thought she’d won a corner; Campbell couldn’t quite get the ball under control as she tried to rob Selina Ostermeier. Halverkamps cried out in frustration at herself when she conceded a throw in.

But worse was to come. After Wamser had blazed over, and with five minutes added on already being played, Fudalla broke down the right. She somehow evaded Tysiak’s challenges and cut back across goal to where Kögel, at full stretch, toe-d the ball over the line. The Leverkusen striker lay flat on the floor at the culmination of her slide. The crowd were momentarily stunned. It felt like the cruellest of blows.