“Giving less than everything, is never enough” screamed the choreo, draped the width of the Waldseite at kick off as Nina Hagen’s majestic anthem rang out over the night skies of Köpenick. They remembered great nights here against Gladbach, going back to almost the first time those floodlights were lit in the seismic semi-final back in 2001.

Of course, among them was the 2-1 win in October 2021 here when Danilho Doekhi scored the winner at the death, but surely lightning couldn’t strike twice. Could it?

Maybe, just maybe it could. To do so, the fans’ message would need to be heeded, and their players wouldn’t let them down. Union attacked from the off, and Derrick Köhn flicked his left foot at a pass dropping across him, that Moritz Nicolas had to stick a last gasp hand out to deflect wide of the near post within two minutes. 

But the former Union keeper hadn’t stopped the threat, as Doekhi rose unmarked to power home a header from Christopher Trimmel’s corner. If in 2022 he’d done it in the 97^th minute, now he’d done it in the second.

The stadium boiling, Union tore into Gladbach. Skarke charged down the right; Ansah won a corner off Joseph Scally, punched away by Nicolas. Then he and Köhn linked up on the left, with Ansah playing the daintiest of passes back behind him with his heel. Aljoscha Kemlein, celebrating his return to the starting eleven, slipped a lovely pass out to Skarke, who won another corner that saw Köhn flash a shot across goal and wide of the right-hand post. 

And when Gladbach finally mustered an attack with 12 minutes gone, Rani Khedira won the ball back, before hitting a gorgeous long ball to Ilić, which though technically better, didn’t have half the eruption of joy as when Doekhi launched a returned free kick up into space, the ball dropping in the Gladbach half for Skarke who took a touch before dropping the cheekiest of lobs over Nicolas. 

Union were irrepressible. Next up Diogo Leite - this was an evening  for  the centre halfs  to enjoy themselves up top - was running towards the Gladbach box, the ball at his toe, before playing in Skarke. Though that chance was ultimately spurned, Skarke came much closer straight afterwards, this time driving a low shot, skidding off the wet pitch, just past the left-hand post. 

That the second was coming seemed clear as the half wore on, but that it would again be Doekhi was close to unbelievable. This time, Ansah - close to unplayable at times - burst again into the box, defenders falling by the wayside. He crashed the ball off the back post, but the angle of his shot meant that it came back in a perfect diagonal, to where Union’s centre half toed it home, falling back all the time. 

Union this season have provided nothing if not drama, however, and with half an hour up Haris Tabakovic made it 2-1 when he was played into the inside left channel by Yannik Engelhardt, the ball having once been cleared by Querfeld. He finished hard and high, across the stretching Rönnow.

With Gladbach now back in the game, tempers started to fray, and the players came together by the touchline, just after Jens Castrop got a card, for lifting the ball over Rönnow with the whistle long blown. That would be the end for Union’s captain, however, and he trudged off, replaced by Janik Haberer.

With three minutes added on at the end of the half, Leite clipped a free kick into the box after the former Unioner, Marvin Friedrich, pushed Ilić to the floor. Then they got another when Sander clattered Ansah out on Union’s left. It was wonderfully poised as  the  sides went in for the break.

Union roared into the second half.

Ilić, his back to goal and Haberer’s long ball already chested down like he had a cushion under his red and white shirt, defiantly held off Friedrich as he was pushed and pulled; Köhn won another corner off Scally, himself taking Khedira’s elegant chip with all the calmness in the world; Rocco Reitz and Englehardt had to team up to bundle Ansah over on the left before Köhn sold Reitz a lovely dummy, feining to come inside before hitting a wicked cross with his right having bombed on  up the wing instead. 

Gladbach weren’t giving up, however, and Khedira, watchful as ever, got a toe in the way as Florian Neuhaus threatened to shoot, nudging the ball away just in time. With the hour up, Gladbach’s new interim coach, Eugen Polanksi, made four changes while Baumgart, his sleeves rolled up, kept his powder dry (or at least as dry as he could, as the fine rain continued to swirl under the lights).

The pace rarely dropped. Tabakovic had the ball in the net but was offside. He then volleyed over after Rönnow had punched clear. Kemlein caught a half-volley from 25 yards; Skarke had his shot saved by Nicolas having jinked his way into a half-chance.

With 20 minutes to play, Baumgart made his first changes, bringing off Skarke and the excellent Köhn for Wooyeong Jeong and Tom Rothe in a like-for-like change, but the next action would come in the Union box as Querfeld cleared impossibly high, the ball dropping with tennis-ball-backspin, looping backwards on the bounce, above Rönnow’s leap and over the bar.

Union’s keeper then did brilliantly, getting out and across to flick Franck Honorat’s cross away from his six-yard box. With the guests starting to seize control, and only 15 minutes remaining of normal time, Baumgart reacted, taking off the tiring Ansah, replacing him with Alex Král. Union fought and fought. Král spun, Khedira – already booked for wrestling Honorat to the ground – won another ball in the centre-circle. But the vice-captain, now wearing the armband in the absence of Trimmel, had his best to come.

With the ball dropping from the right, he set himself and crashed it to Nicolas’s right and into the net first time, putting his laces through the ball, his head a still life study. It was his first goal since against Freiburg in March, and only his second since he had ensured qualification for the Champions League against Bremen a lifetime ago. Though not as epochal, with the game as it was, this was still a goal of the greatest importance. 

At the final whistle the stadium erupted one final time. Once again Doekhi had been the greatest thorn in Gladbachs side. Once again Khedira had stepped up when Union most needed him, and he led his side around the pitch for a lap of honour, triumphant,grinning from ear to ear.

They had more than lived up to that message from the start. They had given everything.