Some streaks just can’t go on. As 1. FC Union Berlin’s women’s team won their third league game, and fourth in total, on the bounce, Samantha Steuerwald had to go without a goal of the month contender. Today, in a performance that improved as the game went on, the goals would be taken care of by Eileen Campbell and Nele Bauereisen, the two starting strikers.

Yet, Steuerwald was at the heart of an all-round superb defensive performance from her side. In the continued absence of Lisa Heiseler, she would show her strongest traits wearing the captain’s armband, starting off in the first 30 seconds as she chased across her own box, snapping into a tackle on Nürnberg’s Natassja Lein. Marie-Louise Eta had mentioned Lein in her press conference on Thursday as a key player for Sunday’s guests, one the veterans of the 2. Liga here among the superb 7,042-strong crowd at the Alte Försterei know all too well.

Steuerwald’s tackle was hard, timed impeccably and clean as a whistle, sending the ball out for a throw-in and leaving Lein on the floor. Job done. Her header after five minutes, having stepped up to the halfway line, was a peach, too, almost setting Eileen Campbell away towards goal.

But whatever the captain can do, so can the others. The entire back line shone on a day that started out in the looming grey of winter and ended in golden Autumnal shades. A minute in, Amber Tysiak danced past Lein with the most subtle of movements, shifting her bodyweight like a boxer, leaving her opponent swinging at air. Judith Pujols wasn’t afraid to get in on the act, either, shepherding the ball out of play, holding the same player at bay all the way. Her tackle on her after 20 minutes later was even better, betraying an elegance that stretches back to her La Masia roots. Lein was already cursing a dogged and rigorous Union defence.

And they had needed to hold firm in those opening passages of play as Nürnberg came at Union with all they had, just as when Louna Lapassouse lifted the ball daintily over Jill Janssens’ head on her way into the box, only to take a touch too many in the aftermath of her glittering show of skill. Union were being pushed back by a high and determined Nürnberg press that saw keeper Lourdes Romero up as far as the centre-circle for one contentious free kick.

Still, it was almost with a sense of great inevitability that Union’s first chance would come through their skipper, unable to turn Lia Kamber’s swinging free kick across goal and in at the back post. But at that point, this was an outlier; it took half an hour for Union to start to find their flow going forwards. Passes went astray all too often, and when the wingers got some space, they were denied. Pujols caught Marie Bleil flush in the face with her next cross, Naika Reissner was tackled by Lobanova, having sashayed her way into the box. Campbell slashed a shot from distance wide of the right-hand post.

But, with Kamber starting to pull the strings in the middle, seeing more and more of the ball, they were perceptibly improving, and the opener came on 32 minutes as Eileen Campbell threw herself at a Janssens cross, bravely charging in between two defenders and heading the ball over the line, crashing into Romer as she went.

Nürnberg weren’t to give up though. Having lost the 2. Liga title to Union, they came here with scores to settle, and after Lobanova had seen her glancing header flash just wide of the Nadine Böhi’s back post, Lara Meloni levelled the scores, popping up just outside the six-yard box to ram the ball over the line.

The game had exploded into life. Schneider drove over from an angle on the right, Jella Veit, on for the hurt Hausicke just after the first goal, tackled Jonna Brengel just in time. Union took the lead five minutes before the break after Reissner’s next bursting run up the left, shoulder to shoulder with Lobanova all the way, cutting into the box and squaring for Campbell. Unable to turn, herself, she found Bauereisen just behind her who finished through the crowd.

She almost doubled it before the break came, but Romer blocked her short, sharp volley with her face, taking it on the chin, buckling in pain immediately.

Having had the last shot of the first half, Bauereisen had the first of the second, hitting a volley just wide as she turned, her back to goal, inside the box. Campbell was then at the heart of their next chance, breaking brilliantly from inside her own half, picking out Reissner in full flight up the left and continuing her run to try and get on the end of the returning cross. It was just overhit in the end, but it showed the confidence now surging through this side. Schneider killed a high ball with a great touch on the right, like a bird struck by a slingshot; Bauereisen found Janssens overlapping, but she put too much on her cross from Reissner. Kamber then hit a wonderful free kick, tipped away from going in the top corner by a flying Romer.

Romer did almost as well on the stroke of 55 minutes, this time diving low to her right to stop Reissner’s diving header, after Veit picked her out with a pinpoint, midriff height cross. Reissner was electric, her run on 60 minutes, covering all of 30 yards, was a thing of beauty, a masterclass in momentum that couldn’t he stopped even by Charline Coutel’s repeated tugs on her shirt.

Union were now dominant and were the width of the bar away from going 3-1 up when Janssens hit a fine, looping shot from the edge of the box onto the top of the woodwork. And when Lapassouse broke, trying to wriggle free into the Union box, Tysiak battled her all the way, giving the lone striker no chance.

Reissner and Kamber were taken off with 20 minutes to play, replaced by Sophie Weidauer and a fit again Lisanne Gräwe. Weidauer’s first touches were sublime; a tight bit of control on the wing; a lightning one-two with Veit into the box; a shot, deflected up and over the bar for a corner. Gräwe, too, impressed immediately, linking up with her old partner from Frankfurt, Veit, without looking, then hitting a pass up the line for Campbell so well weighted it went like it was controlled by a magnet.

With ten minutes to play, and the sun now bursting through the corners of the main stand, Laura Miller went down hurt. The Nürnberg players rushed to their bench for a conference. But it was to little immediate avail. Romer twice had to punch clear from her goal-line before Janssens cracked another shot inches wide of the left-hand upright.

But then came a scene that put the game itself in the shade briefly. Bauereisen took what looked like a shoulder to the head and dropped straight to the floor, still. Julia Pollak was straight to her, signalling the medics to hurry onto the pitch. Bauereisen didn’t move for what felt like an age before blessedly bending her legs. She was led off unsteadily, but under her own strength. Play carried on with Leela Egli in her place.

The sight of Bauereisen jigging with glee after the final whistle was a delight, but for a moment there many were watching her, right in front of the teeming Gegengerade through their fingers.

Union were never going to lose this now. And with two minutes of the five added on already played it was, fittingly, Steuerwald who intervened a last time, sticking out a toe to nudge the ball away from Meroni as she raced into the Union box, sniffing a final chance to draw level. Weidauer took the ball into the corner, sticking her elbows and her tongue out.

The Union players came together at the final whistle for a final huddle, all the staff, all the substitutes, all the squad and they listened with bowed heads as Eta spoke. Then they broke for the celebrations to begin. They danced and they sung and they raised their fists in unity with the crowd.

“It was a very hard-fought game where we left everything on the pitch. I am glad that we won. Today’s match shows that we have what it takes to win such games, and that is a good step forward in the league.” 

“It wasn’t our best game today, but you have to win these games too, and I’m glad I could contribute my part. We accepted the challenges especially in the second half and thus allowed little and secured the three points.”

“It was a hard-fought victory. We had to invest a lot today. The first half was a bit tough, but we still managed to score two goals. In the second half, we had much more momentum and should have sealed the game. It was open until the end, but ultimately it is a very deserved victory.”