Until the last game of last season, 1. FC Union Berlin had never won in Augsburg; then Andrej Ilić broke the spell in the 96^th minute. It was heart-stopping, but then so was this. Though Union wouldn’t come away with all three points, Ilić was at the heart of a breathtaking comeback, assisting Marin Ljubičić’s 93^rd minute equaliser with a brilliant touch and a last-gasp shot. They had already gone a man down, but they refused to give up. This side never do, after all.

But that was all a long way off as Michael Gregoritsch – making his starting debut - left Rani Khedira in a heap in the middle of the centre-circle, crashing into him, blindsiding Union’s vice-captain from behind. The ball had barely rolled. He looked winded, but more surprised. The resulting free kick was launched into the box with Khedira off the pitch, but though Wooyeong Jeong managed to get a touch as the ball entered the box, Finn Dahmen, in the Augsburg goal, picked it up without too many worries.

It kind of summed up the half, at least until its final moment.

Smoke billowed around the arena, tifos from both ends giving a proper matchday atmosphere to the Thursday evening kick-off time, and Union seemed to come out of the blocks quickest, with Derrick Köhn already coming out best in what would become a running battle with Robin Fellhauer on the Augsburg left; Oliver Burke beat Dimitrios Giannoulis down the right, hitting the byline, but his cut-back was snuffed out by Dahmen after nine minutes. After 11 he drifted into the box, wanting to get on the end of Diogo Leite’s long diagonal, but a nudge in the box put him off course. The Union defender would play another, almost identical pass a little later, this time one that Köhn almost pulled out of the sky and into Ilyas Ansah’s path.

The hosts’ first real piece of action came when Frederik Rönnow got in between Alexis Claude-Maurice and the ball at the near post. Unflappable, he held on firm. But it was an outlier, and neither side were threatening too much, at least until Andras Schäfer planted his header down into the ground from Burke’s clever cross, but the ball sprung off the turf too high, and cleared the bar by a couple of centimetres. Baumgart chuckled at the touchline, mimicking how he thought he should have hit it. Some people will never stop being strikers.

Union were improving as the half wore on, and Jeong was up next, stinging Dahmen’s palms with his low shot after Burke and Ansah had combined neatly and he’d switched feet at the speed of light. Burke, under pressure from Cedric Ziesiger, drove wide, having cut the Augsburg defence in two with his next dangerous run, picked out expertly by Schäfer.

With just over half an hour up, play ground to a halt, as a rain of Bundesliga-branded rubber balls came onto the pitch from the Augsburg end by the dozen, protesting the kick off time. The players came together in the technical areas, jogging on the spot, hopping on their toes. The interruption broke up the momentum Union had been building up, but suddenly Leopold Querfeld robbed Anton Kade, took a couple of strides forwards and tried to slip Burke through with the outside of his boot.

There was a moment of panic between Dahmen and Keven Schlotterbeck, but eventually the keeper managed to hoick the ball away, just in time. It had been a close-run thing.

With six minutes time added on almost Rönnow was called into action twice, once coming out and claiming a high cross at the second attempt, the second as Zesiger met his header from a corner well, but put it too central to really trouble Union’s stopper.

But there was nothing he could do when Claude-Maurice picked up the ball, all of 30 yards out, with time almost up. The Frenchman looked up and hit a wonderful shot towards the top right corner, somehow beating Rönnow, crashing the ball in off the underside of the bar. Though they had been enjoying their best spell of pressure of the half, it had come from nowhere. 

Union started the second half much as they had the first, with Burke charging up the middle, and Schäfer winning a superb tackle out on the right after the promising move broke down. Augsburg rallied; Rönnow and Querfeld had the briefest moment of miscommunication dealing with a backpass, but Zesiger returned to type and barged Burke into the hoardings. Kristijan Jakic got booked for dragging Jeong back, Köhn clipped the free kick into the box, but Ilić could only graze his header wide.

But for all Union’s efforts, Claude-Maurice was the width of the woodwork away from a brace with the hour almost up, hitting his free-kick perfectly around the wall, past Rönnow’s left hand and off the post. The it was Rönnow who denied them, springing to his left to stop Kade’s well-struck effort after the hosts had broken at pace, catching Union at the back, three against two.

With a little over 25 minutes to play, Baumgart made his first changes, bringing Aljoscha Kemlein, Livan Burcu and Andrej Ilić on for Burke, Ansah and Schäfer. It worked, and straight away, Union looked a touch quicker, a hint sharper in their intentions. Kemlein hit a high-swung pass that Burcu killed with a single touch, bursting forwards, winning a free kick as he was tripped that Querfeld crashed into the wall.

But slowly their fire started to burn out again, and again Rönnow was called into action, saving from Noahkai Banks, this time holding his low shot as he dived to his right.

With just over ten minutes of normal time to play, Khedira volleyed over, banging the ground in frustration as he landed from his chest high volley. He would be taken off soon after alongside Leite, as Baumgart switched to a back four – just as he did against Mainz last weekend – with Marin Ljubičić and Alex Král coming on.

After Rönnow had stopped at his near post from Fabian Rieder, Král was sure he had won Union a penalty, having chipped a cross in from the byline, hitting Zesiger’s outstretched hand in the box. And just as the referee waved it away, it looked like it wasn’t going to be their day, especially as Derrick Köhn was sent off a moment later having caught Samuel Essende with a high foot, though also he won the ball. It seemed harsh at best.

They shrugged. The fans would have been forgiven for thinking this was over. But just as they had come back against Mainz, they would somehow do so again. The remarkable equaliser came as Král again appeared on the right, his cross brought down brilliantly by Ilic from shoulder height, whose shot was flicked past the despairing Dahmen by Ljubičić.

They had deserved the point; it just seemed so unlikely.

But, just like last time; this side just don’t know when they’re beaten.