When, with time running out and a point as fragile as a baby bird in their hands, Cara Bösl was not penalised for rushing out and catching Svenja Fölmli last week against Freiburg, it felt like it could be a turning point, a moment where not all the luck had gone against this 1. FC Union Berlin side. Because before then, they had come from a goal down against Jena and still lost. They’d come from a goal up against Eintracht and lost.

Here, against one of the league’s surprise packages, 1. FC Köln, they went a goal up and conceded an equaliser... Only this time, they won. And how glorious it felt to the near 6,000 crowd on the terraces of a freezing Alte Försterei who finally got to witness a win in 2026. The indomitable, superb, battling players’ spirit had told, their fight had been repaid.

For they needed all of that and more. Maybe it was sign, too, that kick off was followed by sustained period where the ball didn’t touch the ground; Tanja Pawollek and Lisa Heiseler had headers, Köln’s Laura Feiersinger and Laura Vogt did, too; as Cara Bösl held the first threatening ball, a free kick launched high into her box from out on the right. This was always going to be tough.

But against one of the miserliest defences in the league, this never needed to be pretty; even if Judith Steinert’s early tackle on Adriana Achcinska was just that. It was immaculately timed, too.

Union bustled early on, whether through Pawollek in the middle, clearing up with an elbow out and a strong, low stance, or as Dina Orschmann covered 25 yards in a second, the ball at her toe.

But the hosts would have an early let-off, caught on the break after only six minutes, with Sandra Jessen hitting the back post when she had only Bösl to beat, and half the goal gaping in front of her.

Indeed, with the opening phases negotiated, Union were hanging on, with Köln causing repeated damage down both flanks. Samantha Steuerwald cleared from inside her own six-yard box after a moment of sudden panic broke out following a clever Köln set-piece and low cross from the left. Bösl was next up, diving out low to punch away Feiersinger’s equally low, and equally threatening one from the right.

Adriana Achcinska drove her shot straight into the grateful Bösl’s arms from 25 yards; Amber Tysiak got a toe in just ahead of Jessen in the box as she tried to turn.

But, the storm ridden, Union rallied, with Eileen Campbell, particularly, lightening the pressure. First, she took a high ball down, seeing her short-range shot deflected out for a corner, then having a go from the left, but overhitting it out for a goal kick. Her next effort, a brilliant first-time cross in from the right-hand touchline, suddenly troubled Irina Fuchs for the first time, as Hannah Eurlings flew in to try and head home. The keeper, however, just got there in time.  

Köln had another chance as Pawollek caught Weronika Zawistowska, just outside the box. Laura Vogt opted to clip it over the wall but couldn’t get enough dip on the ball to get it under the bar.

Union, however, would take the lead on the stroke of half an hour. Orschmann, who had been causing increasing problems up the middle, ran onto the ball, taking advantage of an either mis-judged or mis-hit back pass, with Fuchs now well out of position. She took a touch, the goal empty in front of her, then another – posing the theoretical question: can one be too cool in front of an open goal? Just as it seemed that the lunging Celina Degen might catch up with the ball as she slipped it goalwards, it rolled uncertainly over the line.

Dina roared away, in her mind it was never in doubt.

And with that, the game was turned on its head. Union poured forwards, with Steinert almost finding Campbell with a delightful pass out right, then Campbell finding Heiseler with an impish back-heel.

Then, a flag for offside denied Orschmann a second after her wonderful finish, right-footed, across Fuchs and inside the back post. Only as the celebrations had already begun was the call noted. It was a very close-run thing, but one that showed the confidence now coursing through the Union players as half time approached.

If Ailien Poese made no changes at the break, her opposite number, Fabienne Michel, did, swapping out three players to try and bring her side back into things. But almost immediately it was Campbell, again, who opened up the Köln defence, dancing to the near post and squaring just an inch behind Orschmann, primed to shoot.

Two of those substitutes, Martyna Wiankowska and Lydia Andrade, however soon created the first Köln opening of the second half, the former playing in the latter, who seemed to stumble as she tried to work the ball inside onto her right foot. Bösl held Zawistowka’s next shot, at chest height, easily enough. It was a sign of things to come.

Union becalmed, Köln drove forwards again, and – all hands on deck now – Orschmann threw herself at Zawistowska as she was about to let fly; Jessen flicked her header backwards from a clever free kick but only turned to see it dropping wide.  Eurlings was booked for bringing Zawistowska down, this time in a much more dangerous position, on the edge of the box.

Wiankowska took it, crashing the ball into Heiseler’s face, flooring the Union captain briefly. She was taken off alongside Eurlings a minute later, making way for Sophie Weidauer and Naika Reissner.

But the longer Köln kept up their pressure, the more likely it was that a goal would come, just as happened against Freiburg. And so it came to pass after a good bit of play that saw the ball swept out to the third of those half time substitutes, Pauline Bremer. Her finish was true and clean and, hit across Bösl, gave the keeper little chance.

The game grew rancorous after the goal, with Orschmann booked, and when Bösl pulled up off the ball, the entire Union team raced to the touchline. There would be a longer break when Tysiak and Jessen crashed together horribly, the latter requiring extended treatment. Fortunately, both were able to carry on.

Jessen was down again only a minute later, as she and Weiß came together this time, the referee, again, giving the benefit of doubt to the Köln player. The free kick came to nothing however, and, after the immediate change of Ida Heikkinen and Antonia Halverkamps for Steinert and Orschmann, Union re-took the lead.

This time Campbell was picked out by Weidauer, 25 yards from goal, towards the right. She drove forwards and finished superbly hitting the ball with too much power to give Fuchs a sniff.

Campbell was close to second with just under ten minutes to play, but as she struggled to get the ball out from under her feet, she was swamped by the retreating Köln players, four of them in the end, and it came to nothing. But their fight was exemplified by Reissner, who, too, took three players to stop her as she battled for the ball out on Union’s left.

Poese made her final change with five minutes of normal time to play, Marina Georgieva coming on for Weiß, who had followed up her wonderful goal last week with a typically tigerish display tonight.

But if anyone was to be thanked, it Bösl, diving back at full stretch to tip Degen’s drive just over the bar. It was a wonderful save, and couldn’t have been timed better.

There were eight minutes to play still as the clock reached 90, an announcement met with derision by the home fans. Nonetheless, Weidauer drove towards the corner flag, eating up all the seconds she could, while Heikkinen made two superb, full-blooded, yet clean-as-a-whistle challenges on Wiankowska.

Weidauer found Reissner, who charged on, beating her marker, opting to shoot, but dragging the ball wide of the back post as Fuchs raced out of her goal to close the angle, before the last minutes played themselves out in a fog of challenges. Bösl held Jessen’s header; Kamber was booked for nothing after Reissner was hauled to the ground; Steuerwald headed another punt well clear.

Their fears were banished; they would hold on. This side could not only take the lead. But they could win again, too.

“We are all very happy to have finally brought the victory over the line today. It feels good to leave the pitch as winners again. Of course, I am glad that I could contribute with a few saves. In the end, however, what matters most is that we were able to keep the three points in Berlin today.” 

“I am very proud of the entire team because we had worked the hardest today. It was very important that we went into every duel until the end and believed in ourselves. We played it very cleverly today.”

“The victory is an enormously relief. We talked a lot during the week about how we want to react to setbacks. What the team accomplished after the equaliser from Köln deserves huge praise. They implemented everything we discussed today. I am therefore incredibly proud of the entire team."