It is hard to believe that this was the first ever meeting of Union and HSV in the Bundesliga, indeed only the second here at the Alte Försterei at all. Its lights shone bright in the darkening Köpenick skies on this Sunday evening, but if it looked pretty as a picture, the din it created on this evening was to become hellish, raucous, belligerent and deafening.

The scene set, it was of course the unfussiest of showmen, Frederik Rönnow, who made such little show of his first stop, holding Rayan Philippe’s overhead volley above his head as easily as you like. The keeper was a beacon of calm, his new contract celebrated deliriously before kick off, but there was too little control in those opening exchanges from either side, the pace a little too frenetic, the ball a little often a little too high. But Derrick Köhn slipped between Rayan Philippe and Giorgi Gocholeishvili after seven minutes, then attacked Gocholeishvili again after eight.

It was this burst that led to Diogo Leite being bundled over in the box, tripped by Philippe as he moved, the referee, Deniz Ayketin, pointing immediately to the spot. There was no question in his mind. The only one of Union’s attacking trident not to score so far this season, Andrej Ilić, stepped up, but though he hit his spot-kick hard and true, Daniel Heuer Fernades guessed correctly and saved to his right.

After that the game settled into more of a rhythm, if an occasionally imprecise one, as two matching formations tried to find their each other’s flaws. Hamburg countered, and Philippe tried to bend his effort into the top corner, but Rönnow was equal to it, picking it out of the air two-handed with certain ease. He punched Philippe’s next effort away, better this time, his reactions serving him well as the ball had more zip on it than expected.

Köhn was doing well out on the left, meanwhile. Gocholeishvili stepped on his toe. Union’s first ever Ghanaian international howled but took the apology proffered. It was tough down there and Daniel Elfadi went down as Christopher Trimmel hung a ball as if on a line between him and Ilić and the onrushing Ilyas Ansah. Philippe, never far from the action, left Leite in a writhing heap; Leite’s sliding tackle back on him just three minutes later was perfectly judged. When Nicolai Remberg went down having been grazed by Ansah, Union’s striker put his hands to his face, he couldn’t believe it. 

And when Jean-Luc Dompé was suddenly free, space opening in front of him, he dallied, allowing Querfeld just enough time to get across to make a most necessary of tackles. 

With half an hour gone, Miro Muheim caught Oliver Burke, as he set off on one of those sprints from his own half that proved so deadly the previous week against Eintracht. He saw an immediate yellow card, holding his hands up, helpless against the Scot’s pace, but Union failed to capitalise. It did however galvanise them, and straight away Burke and Ansah combined again at pace, Ansah placing a gorgeous return ball through Remberg’s legs. Trimmel played the resulting corner short to Ansah, but he cracked his  shot over the bar.

With two minutes added on Viera again tried to shoot from outside the box, but Doekhi was there in the ball’s path, standing tall, his hands behind his back. Philippe blazed over just before the half was up, from close range at the near post.

But Aytekin’s whistle brought things to a halt before anything else could happen. They went down the tunnel goalless.

Steffen Baumgart’s understudy, the Union legend, Sebastian Bönig, made no changes at the break, and Ansah started off on the charge, Viera bouncing off him once on the byline, then a second time, having got up, and tried again to get the ball. Rani Khedira had the first shot after Köhn found Ilić, who chested the ball down into space for the vice-captain to squeeze out a volley, low and directed towards the left-hand upright, held at the second attempt by Fernandes Heuer.  

Dompé did far better after 51 minutes, his vicious drive dipping and swerving towards goal. Rönnow did well to get it up and over the bar, diving backwards as he got two fists to the ball. Dompé then was on the back-foot, as Trimmel beat him with some sleight-of-foot magic – showing one way, going the other - before hitting another tempting cross into the box, just inches above the rising head of Ilić. 

With a break in play caused by the torrents of smoke coming from the Waldseite, Bönig made his first substitutions, bringing on Andras Schäfer and Tim Skarke for Haberer and Burke. Play resumed, Viera then caught a lovely volley with his right, but it flew past the post, if Rönnow seemed to have it covered anyway.

Khedira did superbly to stop Dompé from behind, out on Union’s right. Leite timed another slide on Philippe exquisitely on the left. 

Union were now pouring on the pressure. Skarke won a corner, crashing the ball off Elfadi, one Trimmel whipped in that Doekhi couldn’t head towards goal, but that dropped instead to Ansah, his shot skewed across goal. Trimmel clipped another free kick into the box, its reaction seeing Leite and Doekhi still up front as Union attacked again, Querfeld swinging at a volley that seemed destined instead for the right boot of Ilić. 

The game grew wilder and wilder. Ransford Königsdorfer flashed his shot across Rönnow and just wide of the back post as Union were caught off guard. Ansah won another corner immediately afterwards, but all was delayed as Warmed Omari rolled back onto the pitch as Trimmel waited to take it. HSV made two  substitutions as the wait dragged on, before the captain finally took his set-piece, somehow seeing it come back off the near post.

Then Muheim brought down Skarke on the right, Ansah rising, but flicking his header agonisingly wide of the back post from the free kick. With the echoes of that still ringing around the stadium, Bönig swapped off the tiring Köhn for Tom Rothe. 

Rönnow held Guilherme Ramos’ header as it threatened to sneak over the line before Rothe hit a volley, hip-height, sitting up nicely, over the bar. Then, with five minutes left of normal time, and plenty more to be added on, Bönig made his final change, taking off Ansah for Wooyeong Jeong, just in time for Trimmel to shove Dompé off the ball the way others would their kid brother. 

He got a yellow card for pulling him back as the referee's assistant signalled there were ten minutes still to be played after the 90 was up. Rönnow punched away the resulting free kick, as surely as he did the first, all that time ago. 

As Union won another corner, Schäfer turned to the Waldseite, gee-ing them up for a final burst, but though he connected surely, Doekhi again couldn’t get his header on target in front of the teeming stand.

Then, with three minutes remaining Querfeld and Viera went for the same ball, cleared into the Union half. But while the Union defender went with his head, the HSV went with his boot, catching the Austrian. He got an immediate red card, but remained on the ground for an age, trudging ultimately off, as Trimmel lined up another long free kick. AThey won a final corner with 12 minutes gone, and still Union threw all they had at HSV, but they couldn’t manage anymore. 

The players lined up in front of the Waldseite, exhausted, after the final whistle. Over a hundred minutes and more they had given their all. All eyes will be on the two clubs’ fourth ever meeting in the Spring. 

"Overall, we didn't do enough. We didn't really get a grip on the game and didn't manage to press them. We also lacked energy and intensity. Although we were well prepared, it wasn't enough today."

"The game, and especially the first half, was tough. We didn't manage to implement our game plan as we had intended. Something was missing, but we remained focused throughout. We had enough chances, but it didn't work out." 

"In the end, we have to live with the point. We missed the penalty in the first half. That would certainly have helped us a lot, because I think HSV were the better team in the first half. After the break, we fought our way back into the game and had a few more set pieces."