If you watched Union at the start of this game, you wouldn’t have dreamed that they’d have lost. They seemed so confident, so assured, so slick. But the margins are fine in the Bundesliga and having fallen to a single goal to a resolute and very talented Eintracht Frankfurt goal on Monday evening, they are still looking for their first points of the season.

There were, of course, positives, and Marie-Louise Eta pointed to them after the game was up. There was the work with the ball, the movement off it and the courage to keep going until the very end, and that’s before we come to the superb performance of Nadine Böhi in goal. They were all there, it’ll just take a day or two for the players to recognise them.

It started with near silence, a 14-minute protest at the Monday evening kick off. But it’s hard to keep your tongue when green shoots are opening up in front of you, and the 5,717 fans crackled as they watched Union open up with a beautiful bit of play; Naika Reissner and Judith Steinert on the left, Samantha Steuerwald hitting one cross-field to Jill Janssens, the ball swerving perfectly through the air to her feet. Lisanne Graewe took a fine touch, felt two of her former teammates at her collar and moved it on, back across to the right and Reissner and Steinert. The new dimensions in their play were already opening, up, the new ideas, the fearlessness and artistry. Eta clapped, her hands above her head.

Böhi, still in place of the injured Cara Bösl, was there, always looking to hit the ball short, fearlessly. Lisa Heiseler was in there too, holding it up before laying it off to Janssens as a golden rain fell, illuminated by the late summer sun, slipping over the top of the main stand and the forest behind it.

They were sharp in the tackle, and quick to move the ball on. Lia Kamber squeezed a shot away towards the left-hand post after five minutes but put it just wide. Still, that was more than they’d seen against Freiburg almost all day long. But Eintracht had beaten them in the last game of last season and were not going to roll over in this one.

They countered soon enough – Frankfurt were not half as bad in the Champions League as the 5-1 loss to PSG would suggest – and Dilara Açıkgöz had their first shot from range, catching the ball sweetly enough but putting it wide of Böhi’s goal. Hayley Raso ballooned the next one to come their way over, too, but Tomke Schneider had played her part in that, winning the initial header, and putting the Frankfurt player under enough pressure to force the mistake.

Union’s first big chance came after 18 minutes, the culmination of another fine piece of play. Again, Reissner was at its heart; another Kamber cross-field pass having wreaked havoc. Heiseler pulled her effort just wide of the back post, having shot with her favoured left, aiming low, aiming for placement instead of power.

She would have another go blocked by Sara Doorsoun-Khajeh shortly afterwards, hit from 10 yards out.

If the hosts had been stung by the late withdrawal of Amber Tysiak, at least they had Schneider to step into her place at centre-back. She was superb, somehow getting in the way of Raso’s shot, then again on the rebound, cracked also goalwards, before Böhi sprung to her right to tip the follow-up shot around the post.

But though they had probably had the greater chances, it still felt somehow as Eintracht scored first, a scruffy goal after Laura Freigang’s header. It bounced down and bobbled over the line as Böhi tried all she could to get down to it in time. Though it also seemed to come off the unfortunate debutant, Hausicke, Freigang claimed it, just as she did two on the last day of last season, back when Gräwe and Jella Veit were still in Frankfurt’s colours.

If there was little Böhi could do about that one, she certainly stopped another after Amanda Ilestedt had flashed her header from a corner back across goal. She reacted immediately, tipping it away as she dived to her right, a brilliant, instinctive stop.

But that was nothing. Now, for her next trick.

Rebecka Blomqvist went down softly under Eileen Campbell’s challenge in the box. It looked light at best, but though play carried on, the referee Nadine Westerhoff, was already pointing to the spot. She officiously booked Böhi, making a show of it as she marched up to the stopper, and sent the substitutes Bauereisen and Weidauer away from behind the goal, dismissing them like naughty schoolgirls.

The derisory whistles from the crowd grew and grew, but soon they turned to roars of delight as Böhi saved Doorsoun-Khajeh’s spot-kick at full stretch, one handed to her right. The keeper was suddenly flooded by her teammates, until all that could be seen of her was a single fist, still raised triumphantly in the air.

The Union fans grew in volume after that, giving momentum to Reissner, charging down the left onto the next perfectly weighted Kamber pass. The latter was imperious in places in midfield, always wanting the ball, always taking it with the most cushioned of touches, half on the turn, looking to move it straight away. With the break looming it took the combined weight of Noemi Iveli and Acikgöz just to stop her from passing along the halfway line.

Unchanged from the break, Union pushed up as soon as the second half was away; Kamber turning typically away from the Eintracht midfield pair, Reissner certain she’d won a corner on the left after another - and just as typical - run up the line. The pair were constantly involved around the peripheries of the Frankfurt box, but try as they might, Union were yet to trouble Lina Altenburg in the Frankfurt goal. Janssens rose to head Steinert’s cross but couldn’t get high enough. It summed up their day so far.

On the hour, Eta made her changes, bringing on debutant, Judith Pujols, Sophie Weidauer and Nele Bauereisen for Reissner, Heiseler and Steinert. Weidauer went into the middle, with Pujols and Bauereisen on the left. Bauereisen was the first to get a shot away, though it squirmed off her boot, and was easily claimed by Altenburg.

Pujols showed her value, landing her first cross in the box, chested down by Campbell, but arriving too high for Weidauer to be able to make contact. Jella Veit was on in place of Hausicke soon enough, but still Union struggled to break through the well-ordered Eintracht defence, they always faltered at the last,

Still, at the back they were as dogged as ever, a point proved when Janssens tore back to rob Memeti as she tried to find space on the Union six-yard line. Things grew tetchy as tackles were crashed into; Iveli was booked for her late foul on Steuerwald in the centre-circle, the ball already long gone.

Union kept at it, patiently, refusing to panic as the clock ticked on. Ilestedt did superbly to beat Bauereisen away, then Janssens a moment later; Paulina Krumbiegel dispossessed Pujols on the left almost as soon as she’d brought Schneider’s 25-yard pass down into her stride. Bauereisen put the ball between Nina Lührßen’s legs, but Açıkgöz was there to slide the ball away immediately. Campbell then made Altenburg save to her right, meeting Janssen’s cross from the byline.

It was Campbell’s last touch, and she was replaced by Leela Egli with eight minutes remaining on the clock, but the next vital move would again be provided by Böhi, clawing Ilestedt’s header away, then, astonishingly, sticking out a single hand to deny Freigang, bearing down on goal, suddenly alone. The chance had come after Janssens’ cross seemed to have struck Nina Lührßen’s hand in the Eintracht box; time stood still as the German international suddenly broke, only Böhi in her path.

The Union keeper would make one more stop, as Açıkgöz seemed certain to finish, after Danique Tolhoek had come away with the ball, having taken a chunk of Schneider with it.

Union continued their sorties into the Eintracht half for the duration of the four minutes added on, and the cries from the home fans were desperate as Janssens went down in the box under pressure, but it just wasn’t to be. Neither was it when Weidauer picked out Steuerwald out right. Her shot was strong, but too close to Altenburg.

As the fans continued to sing, the Union players came together in a huddle after the final whistle, somehow seeming tighter than ever. They listened as Eta spoke and broke up to acknowledge the support, their legs heavy, their eyes shrouded.

It has been a tough start to the Bundesliga season so far. The green shoots will have to do for now.

“We put in a good team performance on the pitch today and played well. Unfortunately, we then conceded a goal; we need to stay even more focused and work to create a bit of luck for ourselves. We work on this every day in training – playing more attacking football and being more daring. If we keep practising this and applying it in matches, the goals will come – I’m convinced of that,”

“Things have all happened very quickly over the last few days. That makes me all the more pleased that I was able to play here today, even though I’d obviously have liked to have won. We played well in many phases of the match, but unfortunately we lacked a bit of clarity up front. That’s what we need to focus on now and keep working on.”

“Generally speaking, we got off to a good start today; we showed good intensity on the pitch, including when we had the ball. We then fell behind from the free-kick, but we reacted well as a team. We created a few chances and Nadine managed to save the penalty. Unfortunately, we then struggled a bit to make the right decisions in the final third, but the team always believed in themselves and didn’t give up. Of course, we’re disappointed today to come away with zero points.”