The rain was coming down in torrents over the Stadion An der Alten Försterei; it was cold and grey, and as Antonia Halverkamps lunged to catch a ball during the warm up she slid for miles, a smile on her face. The pitch had taken a beating over the last few weeks, it was darkest green, showing the scars of the men’s battle with Bayern last weekend, the question being if the women’s team’s ones from their own bruising encounter with the Bavarian champions had healed sufficiently. 

Though they were the dominant side throughout a tough, typical cup-tie, however, it wasn’t to be.

Union had never before made it to the quarter-finals, and they looked keen to make things right quickly, as Dina Orschmann was dragged down by Lisa Gora to the left of the Jena box with barely a couple of minutes played. Halverkamps clipped the free kick in, landing it expertly at Eileen Campbell’s feet, but the Union striker couldn’t connect cleanly, and Jasmine Janning, in goal, grabbed the ball quickly as it rolled her way.

Jena were sitting deep, their back five content to absorb the pressure, but still Felicia Sträßer got a yellow card before ten minutes were up for her foul on Dina Orschmann, though this time Halverkamps hit the free kick too close to Janning to cause much trouble.

Halverkamps would almost make up for it when she drove just wide after 13 minutes, the culmination of a patient piece of play involving Lisa Heiseler and Jenny Hipp.

Nadine Böhi made her first stop when Noemi Gentile caught her effort from 25 yards well, but too centrally. Off the back of her excellent second half against Bayern, Böhi made no fuss in holding it. The goal aside, she was rarely troubled.

With 20 minutes gone, Union won three corners in a row. Halverkamps hit the first short to Heiseler, bent the second deep towards the back post, just as she had done when she scored that incredible goal against Wolfsburg. The third, from the right this time, she again hit deep. Eileen Campbell knocked it on to Dina Orschmann, who crashed a header goalwards, tipped onto the bar superbly by the alert Janning.

Rieke Tietz saw her shot from the edge of the box fly wide as Jena broke at pace after 25 minutes, but Union were still largely in control, and the guests were quick to retreat back into their own half as soon as the chance was gone. Sträßer couldn’t believe her eyes when penalised for a foul on Campbell, after the Union striker had robbed her and looked to set off towards the Jena goal.

Lisa Heiseler was drifting into increasingly dangerous positions, first when Emily Reske got in the way after she had created an inch of space with her quick feet, then as she almost got on the end of Campbell’s clever little slide rule pass.

But still Jena held firm, their doggedness summed up by the moment when Tietz gave up chasing Samatha Steuerwald back towards the Union goal, instead getting back into her own half to prepare for the next wave of attacks.

But their approach would be rewarded before the half was up. Böhi saved well from Elena Mühlemann, conceding a corner that was hit swinging into the box when suddenly, Union seemed to lose their organisation. Toma Ihlenburg snuck in to head past Böhi when all others failed to make any contact at all. It was the last touch of the half; Union couldn’t believe it.

Ailien Poese swapped Campbell at the break for Ida Heikkinen, the youngster coming in on the left of midfield, ahead of Steinert who had shifted across in a rejigged back four.  Again, Union looked to encamp themselves in the Jena half from the off, and Janning got a yellow card early on for time-wasting. But still they couldn’t break through the massed ranks in black; the decisive pass too often falling just short; both Heikkinen and Weidauer saw attempted crosses fail to land in the box.

Indeed, Gentile had the first decent effort of the half, her shot blocked  by the diligent Weidauer.

Union would be left wondering 'what if?'. Ten minutes in, Orschmann found herself heading goalwards after a corner, and again seeing it come back off the underside of  the bar. Janning then did brilliantly to get across to palm Heiseler’s shot from range around her right-hand upright. Gwendolyn Mummert headed Weidauer’s clipped in cross back and over her own bar, before the German Under 21 striker put wide, having teed herself up to shoot at the near post.

It was all Union, but their luck just wasn’t in. Weidauer cracked a first time shot wide with just over an hour played, as Athanasia Moraitou was already primed to replace Hipp in midfield. Halverkamps threw her right boot as high she could, but she just couldn’t reach Steinert’s cross.

Jena settled as the half wore on, and twice Steuerwald made perfectly timed challenges on substitute striker, Isabella Jaron, clearing from her next foray into the box and conceding a corner with just under 20 minutes normal time remaining.

Poese made her next substitution on 75 minutes, when Marina Georgieva replaced Katja Orschmann. But still Union couldn’t catch a break. Twice Weiß barrelled up the right, but was stopped, first by Merza Julevic, then the former Union player, Josephine Bonsu

When Steuerwald tried to get onto a loose pass in the middle, the referee, Riem Hussain, got in her way. Play carried on, however much to Steuerwald, and the Union fans’ distaste, and Jena were suddenly away, Tietz and Jaron playing it between them on the break until the latter was flagged for offside when she seemed certain to finish.

As the rain continued to pour down and as the skies darkened, Union came straight back at them, and it was only the flick of Ihlenburg’s head that stopped Orschmann’s cross from reaching Heiseler in the box, all alone.

Sniffing the chance of catching Union on the break, Jena looked to turn the screw; Georgieva’s sliding tackle being the only thing that stopped Jaron latching onto the next through ball into the Union box.

But despite all they threw at them, Union were constantly held back at the very last. Janning flew out to punch clear when Steuerwald loomed behind her and Orschmann crossed. 

With five minutes added on, and the crowd singing as hard as ever, Jena played for time. Gentile cramped up only to jog off easily, Janning wandered as far from the ball as she could before coming back to take the goal kick that had long been signalled. When she got the ball in the Union half, Suya Häring headed straight for the corner and stalled. Orschmann thought Steffi Schmid had handled on the edge of the box; Weidauer was called for the minutest of offsides.

With the final kick of the game Georgieva found Steuerwald in the box, but she couldn’t keep her shot down. She held her head in her hands as her teammates, all packed into the box, slumped to the sodden turf around her. The dream of the quarter-finals had again eluded them.

It just wasn’t their day.