This Union weren’t used to losing. Lisa Heiseler was the only member of the team who had experienced to defeats in a row for the club, and that was at the end of 2019, an astonishing streak, no matter the leagues played in since then. But with an injury ravaged squad looking thin, it was fascinating to see how they would react to the setbacks against Freiburg and Köln.

But on a gorgeous, crisp, sunny Sunday lunchtime, they blew Leipzig away. If the kick off time seemed a little early, for Jenny Hipp, playing against her former club, it didn’t show. She snapped into a tackle on Lou-Ann Joly straight away before Heiseler cracked the first shot of the day away from outside the box.

They all still had to be awake. Despite the curious silence - as is traditional against this opposition, the Unioner held their tongues for the first 15 minutes - Marlene Müller advanced down the left early and crossed just an inch too high for Delice Boboy, rising in the box.  

The silence - always difficult when Union are on the front foot, always strange in this loudest of venues - couldn’t hold, however, as Eileen Campbell played Sophie Weidauer in, her shot rolling just past the back post. Campbell herself then smashed a first-time shot, tipped just over the bar after seven minutes. Weidauer dragged her next shot wide four minutes after. The pair were getting closer and closer, their partnership showing signs of bursting into life.

Then the roof came off, intended or not. Campbell did superbly to play in Heiseler, who scored her second of the season with a fine, hard left-footed finish from six yards out. That she hadn’t converted since the opening day seemed as curious as the two losses and the quiet that had draped the packed stands. She is more than a talisman for her side.

Union had deserved their lead, but Leipzig came straight back at them, roused from their own Sunday slumber, and it took a marvellous, acrobatic stop from Cara Bösl to tip Boboy’s shot up and onto the bar.

Immediately afterwards, the drum sounded, the fans counted down, and the fans roared as one. Campbell, superb, darting left and right up top, won the ball back in the Leipzig box spinning on the ground with a windmilling leg.

With 20 minutes played it was so close to two for Union as Hipp beat one inside, then found Heiseler whose shot rippled the side netting. With Campell down winded, after a clash with Müller, the two sides came together at the touchlines, in the shade provided by the main stand, as Ailien Poese and her assistant, Sabrina Eckhoff, convened a meeting. But that wasn’t it for communication. When Anna Weiß mis-controlled a short pass from Katja Orschmann, she turned to the centre-half, a thumbs up met by the palms down gesture to keep cool.

The idea was right, they were saying, and Union were keen to attack up the flanks, though it was from Athanasia Moraitou’s clever ball up the middle that their next big chance came. Herzog did well to punch the ball away after Weidauer’s backwards header was struck deftly towards the target.

Union were the better side for large spells, and with half an hour gone they had seen two  more big chances, the first as Heiseler was called offside following a lightning break that saw her and Weidauer fan out as Campbell advanced behind them, then as Campbell had the ball in the net, though she too was called offside.

Leipzig weren’t without their own threat, however. Müller, hit a volley from a deep, swinging ball from the right, the culmination of a lovely move started by Emilia Asgeirsdottir as she took both Weiß and Hipp out of the game with a single touch and turn. Bösl then flung herself to her left to stop Müller’s next effort, palming it away two-handed.

Union were quick on the break, and the sight of Heiseler racing 25 yards into the opposition half unimpeded was then matched by that of Campbell doing the same. Both times the move broke down when Joly stood up, making two crucial tackles as the opportunity to shoot almost presented itself. Nikoline Dudek put the brakes on Moraitou, tackling hard. Weiß, this time, had created the chance after Hipp’s crossfield ball, switched out left.

With the stroke of half time only moments away, Union made it two. Dina Orschmann made the next of many bustling, dogged runs into the box from the left, hitting the byline and pulling the ball back for her old friend Heiseler. The captain whipped her shot first time past Herzog, again giving the keeper no chance. Union deserved their lead.

Leipzig started the second half on the front foot, as Lisa Baum jinked her way past Dina Orschmann, but Union were close to breaking free when Weidauer hit the cleverest of long balls over the top to Campbell, her touch deserting her as she took the ball down in the Leipzig half.

But every time the guests approached down the right it seemed that the superb Schnieder was there in the right place at the right time. Her tackle on Baum, ten minutes into the half, was a study in muscular, studied determination.

Union came back. First Herzog saved from Weidauer, rushing out of her goal to stop the low shot, then Hipp sliced wide after another Campbell burst up the middle.

On the stroke of the hour Moraitou, worryingly, went down again on the edge of the Union box, having already needed attention earlier on. She grimaced as she walked off the pitch, the physios at her side, and steeled herself as she waited to rejoin the fray.

Soon enough Campbell’s diligence would be repaid as she stroked home Schneider’s little cut-back after Moraitou’s determined run into the box to make it 3-0.

Poese made her first changes, bringing on Ida Heikkinen and Korina Janež, the pair having spent an age hunched over Eckhoff’s notes before replacing Heiseler and Moraitou. But the newcomers were still getting their first touches when Union got their next, making it four when Weidauer beat Herzog, having been set up by Campbell.

The hosts were now rampant, all those fears cast long since aside, the strikers working perfectly in tandem, the sun-draped Gegengerade in full voice.

To their credit Leipzig never gave up, and it took a brilliant save from Bösl, sticking her right boot out at the last, to save from Baum when through on goal and seeming certain to score. Bösl didn’t have to worry as Baum’s next effort flew harmlessly over her goal from outside the box, and as Antonia Halverkamps and Celine Frank replaced Weidauer and Dina Orschmann.

Poese’s final substitution came with ten minutes to play, as the 15-year-old Mariann Noack replaced Katja Orschmann, making her second appearance for the first team, having come on last weekend in Köln. Noack had the unfussy composure of a woman twice her age when immediately called upon to tackle Presis Oteng in the box, striding out with the ball, and finding Schneider.

But if that was a joy to behold, so was the sight of Ida Heikkinen  scoring her first competitive goal for union in the 90^th minute after Schneider and Campbell combined to set her up. A win against Leipzig will always be celebrated at the Alte Försterei, but particularly one as emphatic as this. Worries? Never.

Union were back in business.