The Alte Försterei is no stranger to magical moments, but there was something special in the air on Sunday evening. Golden sunlight poured in between the stands casting long shadows onto a pitch the players were used to, if not a league. For there was a palpable sense in the stands that this was special.

And that the 11,242 fans would feel a certain disappointment at the final whistle, was only a sign of how well their team had performed. The top-flight was never going to be a walkover, after all.  

For if the occasion was huge, the Union players didn’t look daunted, not in the least, and the game started at a furious pace. Naika Reissner attacked almost straight from the off, daring Sanja Homann to tackle her on the fly, winning a corner. Anna Weiß cut inside, hoping to shoot but the ball ran just away from her. Jenny Hipp bent one towards the top corner, but it was deflected out. Sophie Weidauer caught her volley well, but that too went for a corner, this one dropping just above the head of Tanja Pawollek, rising in the box.

 Union would have to be careful though, this Nürnberg side have been rebuilt since they lost 4-0 here last year, and Samantha Steuerwald got across quickly to snuff out the danger posed by Natassja Lein before Jacqueline Baumgärtel put her own shot just over the bar after a sharp break from the guests. Tomke Schneider then did superbly, launching herself on Homann after Steuerwald’s loose pass had suddenly given the Nürnberg striker the ball.

Heiseler put wide from Weiß’s excellent pull back from the right, admonishing herself as the ball fizzed off her toe to the other side of Larissa Rusek’s left hand post. Rusek then had to dive the other way to tip Dina Orschmann’s pinpoint drive around the post a minute later.

Under unrelenting pressure from Weiß, Beatrix Fördös had to put the ball out for a throw-in; it was a sign of the way things were going. Union were riding the crest of the wave created by the magnificent support, and Franziska Mai had a word with Homann after she had to track Orschmann all the way back to her own goal-line, fortunately winning a goal kick. She knew they were getting pegged back and pointed up the line to where she wanted her to be.

Reissner was a menace down the left, beating Mai time and again, finding Orschmann with a gorgeous instinctive backheel with the ball having cannoned behind her. With 37 minutes gone Heiseler was only a flying Rusek fingertip away from opening the scoring with her next superb effort from the edge of the box. Weiß scooped a volley up and over the Nürnberg defence, that dropped an inch over the bar as Rusek backpedalled.

As Union piled on the pressure something had to give. And it came as Orschmann cracked a shot on the turn into the crowd in the box. Referee, Riem Hussein, pointed straight to the spot.

There was only going to be one taker; Heiseler. The captain, an Union player since she was a little kid, struck the spot kick nervelessly, hard and straight. Rusek had no chance, and the crowd erupted in riotous joy. You couldn’t have chosen anyone better to score Union’s first ever goal in the Bundesliga.

The second half started much as the first had ended, with Weiß and Pawollek bullying their opponents as Nürnberg tried gainfully to get the ball forwards; with Reissner charging down the left, and Weidauer and Steuerwald’s shots careering into a crowd of Nürnberg defenders in the box. Reissner looked to hit a deep cross from the left, but ended up forcing the next save from Rusek as the ball suddenly seemed destined for the top corner.

Baumgärtl went down with cramp ten minutes into the half; Anna Aehling left Aneta Polaskova in a heap a minute after that. It was that kind of an evening, bruising and strength-sapping. That was the signal for Ailien Poese to make her first changes, taking off Heiseler and Weidauer for Athanasia Moraitou and Eileen Campbell.

Moraitou was quickly involved, moving the ball swiftly along after Hipp’s superb mixture of strength and skill, turning on the ball on the halfway line with white shirts thronging her.

And still Union kept on at their opponents. Reissner saw another cross palmed desperately away, Schneider’s header was booted as far as it could go in the other direction.

But then, with 68 minutes on the clock, and with Nürnberg redoubling their efforts, Union were given a warning not to rest on their laurels. Following a corner, Polaskova caught her half-volley perfectly, only to see it crash off the top of Cara Bösl’s crossbar. Weiß then had to be aware as the substitute, Selma Licina, found space in the box, nipping in to tackle before she could squeeze a shot off. The Nürnberg striker would get a yellow card shortly afterwards, having scythed Hipp down. For all her frustration at that point, her revenge would come soon enough.

Campbell, playing now alone as a striker, having been sent through once only for her first touch to be just too heavy, was battered off the ball by Julia Pollak, though Hussein saw no infringement to the partisan crowd’s disgust. They weren’t much happier when Reissner was bundled over by Luisa Guttenberger soon afterwards in the box.

Poese made her next changes with quarter of an hour to play, Steinert replacing the superb Hipp, but it was Anna Aehling who was next to shine, making a brilliant lunge as she anticipated Licina’s shot from the edge of the box.

Rusek was called back in action straight away, having to race out at the feet of Pawollek following a sharp one-two with Campbell that sent her away into the box. Though she did well to clear the ball, Rusek came out the worse. She was then indebted to Clara Fröhlich when she got her foot up somehow to clip the ball away from the next charging run from the dangerous Campbell.

Fröhlich would see yellow soon afterwards as Campbell again had her beaten for pace, dragging the Union striker back, a fistful of red and white shirt, as clear as day to the referee. The boos that greeted Fröhlich’s foul on her in the box as she ran on to Pawollek’s through ball from deep boomed out from the Gegengerade were almost deafening

But then came the cruellest of blows. As soon as they thought they were home and dry Nürnberg equalised, against all the run of play. Licina found herself suddenly alone, with time and space to finish coolly past a helpless Bösl.

Many remembered, of course, that these two sides had drawn in the second game of last season, too. But the hosts didn’t look like they’d be settling for a point. Union tore back into Nürnberg, but things wouldn’t fall their way. They had been excellent, and the positives far outweigh the negatives. But it had been a tough lesson in life in the top flight, nonetheless

"I think the result is a bit disappointing, of course, even though the game itself was really enjoyable with the atmosphere. I think we started well, but then let the game slip away from us a bit."

"We had big plans and we're not very happy now, of course, because we should have come away as winners. We controlled the whole game, but unfortunately only scored one goal and then conceded one at the back. I think it's undeserved, but we simply have to make better use of our chances." 

"In the end, we weren't able to defend calmly. We need to analyse why that was. The team fought passionately and earned a point, but of course we're still not satisfied. We could certainly have scored more goals in the first half."