Apparently, football can be played under grey skies as well. Unfortunately the blue up above that had barely been seen since 2026 began, held a brightness that would ultimately shine on the hosts. Union hadn’t been to the former Volksparkstadion since 2018, when Joshua Mees and Sulemain Abdullahi scored in a 2-2 draw here, with the latter’s equaliser coming at the death. Today, even though Andrej Ilić finally broke the spell that seemed to have been cast upon him as Union fought back at the last, they weren’t so fortunate. 

That was the season Union went up to the Bundesliga, of course, while HSV lingered in the second division until this season. This was the host’s 1887^th top flight game, the same number as their founding year.

As such, the atmosphere was cooking long before kick off, the almost 6,000 Union fans, roaring from their corner, a bright coral reef of red among a sea of blue, white and black.

It started at an electric pace, with Union attacking first, Ilić getting in down the inside-left, his cross nervously cleared over his own bar by Miro Muheim, somehow heading it onto his own knee.

But HSV broke at lightning pace, and Bakery Jatta was only a Rani Khedira sliding tackle away from shooting as he readied himself. The corner was cleared, but only for another go, which Luka Vuskovic side-footed over Frederik Rönnow’s bar. Khedira, once again, was everywhere, catching Nicolai Remberg on the halfway line after five minutes, thudding into him with a little less grace than his previous intervention.

Nicolas Capaldo burst through the Union ranks shortly after, darting outside, then in, but failing to get his cross away as the ball got caught up under his boot at the last. Ransford Königsdorffer then headed over after Stanley Nsoki had won his aerial tussle with Robert Glatzel. Now somewhat on the back foot, Querfeld robbed Philip Otele before Fabio Viera flashed his first time strike wide.

Aljoscha Kemlein set a counter on the stroke of 15 minutes, playing the ball out right for Wooyeong Jeong, but, though his cross streaked across the box, it was just too far ahead of Ilyas Ansah to attack the ball.

With 20 minutes almost up, Union seemed to have ridden the storm. Trimmel lofted a free kick into the box, knocked on by Danilho Doekhi, it fell between Ilić and Jordan Torunarigha, the pair clashing heads brutally.  With the Union striker seeming to bear the brunt of the impact, Khedira - certainty personified - cried out for a penalty, but was ignored by referee, Florian Badstübner.

Five minutes later, however, he wasted no time in pointing to the spot as Ilić was caught by Capaldo’s high boot in the box. Though there was an interminable delay, Querfeld held onto the ball the whole time, staring down the massed ranks behind the HSV goal. He staggered his run, but only a little compared to last week’s hotly debated equaliser against Eintracht, and smashed the ball home, to Daniel Heuer Fernandes’ left, leaving nothing to chance.

Incensed, the home fans howled only two minutes afterwards when they were sure they should have had their own spot-kick, and things on the pitch grew wilder; Köhn and Viera tangled; Kemlein lobbed a neat pass over the top towards Jeong. Then HSV drew level, 35 minutes played.

It had been a fine break, one that caught Union on the hop as Glatzel ran into the box, squaring the ball for Königsdorffer to finish first time.

If anything, the goal seemed to settle both sides down again, and until Trimmel’s well-timed clearance with half time now looming, they probed and pushed and tried each other out, without ever seeing a clear chance to break ranks. The captain was ever watchful, and he would get back and across to snuff out Jatta’s threat before time was up.

With four minutes added on, Khedira found Ansah, who took the ball down on his chest inside the box, but was pushed back, opting to cross for Doekhi, on the run up the middle, instead. But the bigger chance would fall to the luckless Ilić, finding himself alone with the ball after Heuer Fernandes raced ill-advisedly out, charging towards an empty goal, the keeper backpedalling frantically. With Torunarigha catching up quickly, Ilić was hurried, and dragged his shot wide of the back post. He couldn’t believe it.

But worse was to come as HSV broke back immediately, and Capaldo got his first ever goal for HSV, seeing Jatta’s cut-back, hit first time, bounce up off Rönnow’s knee and go in off the underside of the bar.

Steffen Baumgart had said during mid-week, how dangerous HSV were on the break. They had proved it again, and Union went into the break stunned. 

Unchanged, Steffen Baumgart’s team were out early for the second half, the music still droning through the cavernous arena. Finally arrived, the HSV players lined up along the halfway line as one, the restart having to be retaken as Jatta went early. If it were a hundred metre dash, he’d have been dismissed for a false start. They were clearly out to to take the momentum from the end of the first half into the second.

Indeed, they attacked from the off, a Khedira intervention and a Köhn tackle on Capaldo away from carving out an early chance. But Vuskovic saw yellow early, too, having scythed down Ansah as he went up the left, and Union would win the first corner after the break when Querfeld found himself darting towards the byline.

Querfeld was using every chance he had to get up into the opposition box, and he couldn’t get his next sighter, a glancing header, quite on target. At the back, too, they were up to whatever came their way, and when Capaldo tried to trick his way down the left, Nsoki, Köhn and even Ansah were all back to deal with him. Jatta too was stopped, but only after he had stumbled his way past Khedira with a certain gleeful fortune.

Königsdorffer blazed over when well set with the hour almost up, and soon enough Baumgart made his first changes, taking off Ansah and Jeong for Livan Burcu and Tim Skarke.

Skarke was quickly into the swing of things as he beat Remberg down the left, putting in a tempting cross for Ilić, but Heuer Fernandes dealt with his header easily enough. Burcu, too, was joining in; found by the rampaging Nsoki on the left, he slid the most dangerous of passes across goal, but Skarke put it wide of the back post, shooting across the keeper from a tight angle. Ilić met his next header well enough but still couldn’t get enough on it to beat Heuer Fernandes.

Union were now in control. Capaldo dived in at Skarke’s feet once, superbly, a second time, not so - giving up a free kick 25 yards out. Köhn and Burcu stood over the ball, the former crashing it off the bar, with the HSV keeper left flat-footed.

It was misfortune rued, and HSV came closing to punishing Union for it when Jean-Luc Dompé ballooned his shot over the bar when presented with the ball from Rönnow’s scuffed clearance. Königsdorffer wouldn’t miss the next time, when he snuck in, inside right, and beat Rönnow with a solid finish across the keeper.

The wind well and truly in their sails, HSV were close to making it four when Viera clipped a cross, catching Rönnow off-guard, though Dompé was just out of the right position to take advantage. Union’s stopper made a superb stop from Muheim straight afterwards, handball style, sticking his right foot out to deflect the ball before it crept in at the near post.

Burcu still probed down the left, his next cross headed down into the ground by Ilić and wide. But it was substitute, Oliver Burke, on for Nsoki just a couple of minutes earlier, who would set up Ilić to finally break his duck in the 88^th minute. The Scot hit his cross perfectly, left-footed, back across goal, for the striker to finally head home his first goal of the season. He had broken the spell, and it had been more than deserved. He had seven assists to his name already this season, but this was the one he wanted more than anything.

There were to be six minutes added on as Union made one final push to draw level, first as Ilić again went up against Torunarigha in the box, then, throwing everyone forwards as Rönnow took a final free kick from way outside his box, after William Mikelbrencis hauled substitute Alex Král down.

But after that was cleared, their time was up. The players came together in front of the magnificent fans for a final time. They had fought as hard as ever. Their efforts, however, just weren’t quite enough. 

"When you score two goals away from home, take a 1-0 lead and then still lose, it's obviously bad. From a defender's point of view, the goals we concede hurt even more. We've now conceded ten in our last four games, and that's simply too many for the Bundesliga." 

"We haven't had a good start to the year. Seven games without a win is obviously not good, we know that ourselves. But we have to keep going and try to win the game at home next week. We're conceding too many counter-attacks at the moment and that really shouldn't happen to us. We'll analyse that and then move on."

‘We're making too many mistakes at the moment. We can actually do better than that, but we played into the hands of our opponents today with our transitions. Even so, I can't fault the team in terms of willpower."