With 41 minutes played in the Pre-Zero Arena in Sinsheim, 1. FC Union Berlin were, as Rani Khedira said after the final whistle, largely the better side. The teams were still goalless, and the away fans, packed into one corner, were making a racket, their songs filling the otherwise empty expanses of the rest of this functional stadium.

But just six minutes later, they were three down. They would fight back, and Rani Khedira got the goal he deserved, but Union would never get over that briefest of periods when the world fell in on them.

It all seemed so impossible, even as the game started with a brief moment of confusion as Rönnow seemed caught between coming and going when Hoffenheim had an early corner. But the threat was minimal, and the threat was just as easily dealt with when they tried to attack down the left, only for Janik Haberer to nudge it back the way of his keeper, composed and ready again.

Union’s first corner came before five minutes were up, Wooyeong Jeong attacking down the left, and it also proved a first half-chance for Andrej Ilić. Attacking the ball through the crowd, however, he could only put his header wide. He almost got a chance to come closer when keeper, Oliver Baumann, stood up all the while to stop Rani Khedira’s shot having given Union’s captain for the day the ball in the first place, in an almost disastrous piece of playing out from the back. The ball came so close to rolling the Serbian striker’s way, but just not quite enough for him to be able to bring it under his control.

The opening phases were pretty wild, with both sides showing a willingness to attack, and when the hosts came down the left through Bazoumana Toure after 15 minutes, Diogo Leite made a wonderful flying, headed clearance from inside his own 18-yard-box, showing timing, bravery and athleticism all at once.

Soon enough, things settled down into a more prosaic sort of rhythm, a pattern only broken when Andrej Kramarić flashed his shot wide - though it seemed likely that Rönnow had his near post covered all along.

So far, so good, it seemed.

With 40 minutes gone, however, Fisnik Asllani was caught by Querfeld in the box. The pair - the former and current Union players - were both going for the same ball, and Querfeld’s kick, catching him on the Achilles, was unfortunate as much as it ever was vicious. But Kramarić wasn’t of a mind to take sympathy on Union. He took a couple of steps, stuttering as he went, semi-Panenka-ing the ball to Rönnow’s left, having already sent the stopper the wrong way in the build-up.

That other, most beloved of former Union players, Grischa Prömel, was at the heart of the fine move that doubled Hoffenheim’s lead, just before the break. He strode forwards, found Toure, whose cross into the six-yard-box was clipped with the perfect weight and trajectory for Kramarić to head home his second. It was all too easy. Having been happy, suddenly Union were two down as the sides went down the tunnel. It would get worse before it got better

Baumgart was careful not to show his hand too early, and sent his side out unchanged after the break, but it was the hosts who had come out fastest; Prömel crashing his volley wide after barely a minute had been played since the re-start.

And having gone from 0-0 after 42 minutes, it was 3-0 inside of 47, when Toure burst down the left, crossing hard and low into the Union box. The ball was played expertly into the space ahead of Rönnow, but behind Danilho Doekhi, and you could see the look on Leite’s face as he made up the gap that he knew he was going to turn it in, himself. Indeed, he did so, helplessly, slamming the ball back into the net after it rebounded his way in despair.

On 53 minutes, Ilyas Ansah, Andras Schäfer and Derrick Köhn came on for Burke, Jeong and Nsoki, and Ansah was immediately in the thick of things, attacking the Hoffenheim box, trying toto play in Ilić.

Ilić’s frustration showed a few minutes later when he fouled Coufal, who had tracked his run back. He dragged him and kicked the ball away as soon as he heard the whistle.

But their hopes weren’t entirely over, the substitutes bringing a new lease of life, and Baumann had to stand up for an age to deny Schäfer’s excellent effort, having won the ball in the air and opted to shoot across the keeper with his left. The Hungarian was at the other end just afterwards too, proving to be decisive, muscling Asllani as he tried to set himself to shoot from just outside the six-yard-box.

Still Union tried to drag their way back into the game; Köhn took the free kick after Robin Hranac brought down Ansah, 25 yards out, to the left. He swung it in, but Leite’s header went over the bar.

Then they gave themselves a chance. Khedira was certain he had scored, driving the ball in through the crowd after Ansah’s superb chested control with his back to goal and lay-off, but for some reason the flag went up; a foul given the other way.

For a moment they even seemed to have accepted their fate until word came down from up high. The referee, Robin Braun, went to the video and checked it again and again. There was nothing to see, the goal counted.

Ansah had the next shot, blocked on the edge of the box, before Leite was replaced by Livan Burcu, as Baumgart threw everything he had left at the hosts; he would flash  a shot wide of the far post within minutes of  his arrival, just after Doekhi had a go of his own.

Kemlein marched through midfield, heading right, but as he cocked his right leg to shoot the ground fell away from underneath him, and he slipped. Hoffenheim broke immediately, and Kramarić was able, unlike Kemlein, to get his shot away. It just flew wide of Rönnow’s right-hand post.

Union continued their determined, fearless press, and Alexander Prass got a yellow card when he clattered Schäfer just outside the box as he prepared to shoot. Köhn stood over it, with Querfeld loitering nearby, but Burcu took the free kick, clipping it into the wall. Schäfer then won a corner following a daring one-two with Querfeld. They weren’t going to go down without fighting.

Baumann had to fling himself in front of Ansah in the last minute of normal time, after Ilić’s header found the ballgoing his way; Prömel, too, cleared spectacularly at full stretch from Haberer as full time approached.

But despite their constant entreaties into the Hoffenheim half, despite the battle and thunder they showed, it just wasn’t to be. there was plenty to be positive about, but the final whistle came, ironically, after six minutes, just a little longer than the time it took for Hoffenheim to score all their goals.