Christopher Trimmel had played Bayern 12 times before this, and even a week ago his chances of starting a thirteenth game against the record champions, and pre-eminent team in German football, would have seemed relatively slim. This wasn’t to be the day for his record to be improved. As his opposite full-back, Tom Rothe, said at the final whistle, Bayern “were simply too good.”

And how. Michael Olise got three, Harry Kane two. They were worth every one of their seven goals, and will be deserved champions, but this game was never going to be decisive for Union. While the sting will remain, they now have an extended international break to put it to bed.

Things looked weird from the start; Bayern weren’t in red, Union were. A new kit had been launched for Oktoberfest; and business still dictates, even at a club as rooted in their own mythology as Bayern. The fans weren’t happy, but the players shrugged it off, they weren’t to be too distracted from the task at hand.

But it would take a while for the hosts to make their mark. Union were dogged and determined at the start. Following Trimmel’s first touch - a long throw into the arms of Manuel Neuer - they were pushed back, but this was as to be expected. They were careful to keep their lines straight, their positions compact and deep-set, with Trimmel eschewing the temptation of any gaps that appeared ahead of him up the right; while Janik Haberer and Andras Schäfer were charged with keeping their discipline in midfield. Michael Olise had the first shot of the day, coming in from the right, but Frederik Rönnow had no problems gathering it at his near post. Dayot Upamecano tested him less with his overhit chip over the top from deep with eight minutes gone.

Bayern moved the ball like lightning in those early phases, almost exclusively keeping it the Union half as their guests dropped further back, allowing them the freedom of the ball. Luis Diaz and Alphonso Davies, and Jamal Musiala and Olise were hitting it like it was on a line between them at times. Olise shot over from 25 yards, given no further space in which to roam.

But for all their caution, Union would break when they saw the chance, and Rothe won their first free kick from a dangerous position having pulled off a lovely piece of control. Trimmel’s resulting set-piece was cleared; Wooyeong Jeong’s cross from the follow up found no-one where they were most needed.

But for all their bravery and discipline, there was little Union could do about the Bayern opener, nor its successors. Davies cut back and found Musiala, outside the box. He took a touch to balance himself and let fly, putting his laces through the ball, keeping it still as it rocketed through the air to Rönnow’s left. The keeper never stood a chance.

Bayern stepped up their pressure, and Rönnow made a wonderful save from Jonathan Tah’s low, diving header, parrying it one-handed before most of those watching even had time to see him move. It was a little like watching a python crushing a deer, squeezing and squeezing, but Union resisted, and even when Olise sprung Diaz free with a brilliant ball out from his own half, Trimmel and Querfeld got back to somehow quash the imminent threat, gasping for breath as the ball was cleared for now. The pair combined again on the stroke of half an hour, with the Colombian striker chipping Rönnow, but the flag was already in the air, he was a yard offside at least.

Still, Union stood up to them; still they knew there was a plan, as anyone who looked at Lustrinelli, frantically waving his players to hit the ball quick and long whenever the chance arose, could see. Rothe was held at bay by Olise, literally standing with the ball under his boot, before knocking him away and hitting a sharp pass upfield for Jeong. Neuer played sweeper now, racing way out of his box to slide the danger away. Jeong was sent away again four minutes later, but this time Davies was there to beat him in a footrace for the ball.

Unfortunately for Union, their resistance would prove to be futile.

Rothe was constantly involved with his battle with Olise – and coming out rather well -  but with 37 minutes gone, the French international got the better of him, nudging the ball away, and then going down as Union’s defender went into the tackle. It looked soft, but also easy for Banjamin Brand to give.

Harry Kane had come into the game on 99 goals, and there was no way he was going to pass up this chance for his century. His penalty was, as they so often are, flawless, unstoppable, hit hard to Rönnow’s right. Bayern were 2-0 up. Felix Uduokahi was booked for complaining after the fact; Khedira was booked for barging over Musiala minute later.

It mattered little. Olise then scored a goal that put even Musiala’s in the shade. The ball came out to him on the edge of the box, and hit caught it, first time, arcing it with his left into the top corner. It seemed it didn’t matter what Union did. They were getting swatted aside.

Lustrinelli swapped out Latte Lath for Tim Skarke at the break. The job of leading the line out there was a poison chalice, but the substitute had score two in three for Union. He had to try something. But his side started off on the back foot, with Rönnow catching Kane on the nose as he punched clear.

Then, suddenly, Neuer was forced into an implausible save from Schäfer with his legs, even though his weight was already moving the other way. He then tipped Querfeld’s header over the bar. The Union fans kept up their noise, just as they had all evening long, but now it had a slight extra edge.  

But whatever life was left in this game was soon snuffed out as Olise and Musiala and Kane flicked the ball between the three of them with implausible ease. The move was rounded off as Kane, having drifted into the box, headed Olise’s cross past Rönnow. 4-0.

Lustrinelli brought on Livan Burcu and Aljoscha Kemlein on the hour for Haberer and Jeong, but still they were often reduced to chasing shadows as their hosts prowled about, threatening from every angle. Uduokhai did superbly to get in front of Kane’s next effort, hit this time towards the near post from the left. Rothe then blocked Ismael Salibari’s shot on the line, but their fifth came from Saibari, the sixth from Olise who rounded Rönnow, then crashed it in off the bar and the back post.

Olise made it seven with another cracker, still with 15 minutes to go, bending it with his left from the edge of the box. To quote the Smiths, this joke just wasn’t funny anymore.

Derrick Köhn came on for Schäfer, crashing a free kick just over the bar soon afterwards. Burcu tried gamely to relieve a little of the pressure, jinking up the left wing, but they’d been crushed by this point. Musiala looked shocked when their possible eighth was denied, but Saibari had been offside in the buildup. It was the smallest of balsams on a painful day for Union.

Lustrinelli was sanguine about the result after the final whistle. “You’ve just got to carry on; there’s no other choice” he said. He knows that though there will be few bigger tests than this, the more important ones are a world away.