The almost 5,000 Union fans were quiet at kick off, as they ever have been since they first saw their team encounter Leipzig, back in the 2. Liga. This game is always important, for the bragging rights, as for the chance to prove that member-led, community driven football clubs are as vital as ever before. But under the floodlights of this arena, forged within the bones of the former Zentralstadion, they were taken apart in the first half, particularly by the glittering, Yan Diomante.

But this was never going to be the decisive game of this part of the season, and that her players fought til the end gave Marie-Louise Eta much to be positive about for the coming, crucial final fixtures.

The hosts immediately take to the front foot, as Antonio Nusa won a free kick, that was struck behind the Union defence, popping up, in the end, somewhat fortuitously for Frederik Rönnow at head height. With the silence holding, Andras Schäfer picked out Oliver Burke up the right-hand side, getting the run on Max Finkgräfe, drawing a corner, terrifying him with his pace. For all the hopes it inspired, this would prove to be somewhat of an exception, this half.

For at the opposite end, and on the opposite side to Burke, Yan Diomande had a fear factor of his own, as he went at Diogo Leite, the Portuguese getting the better of their first encounter after five minutes. Nusa posed a problem of his own, and he jinked his way through the Union defence straight afterwards, though his shot didn’t have enough on it to really trouble Rönnow.

But, the Champions league in their sights, Leipzig were whirring into ominous gear.

The keeper did even better after eight minutes, when Diomande robbed Rothe and burst forwards. Union were suddenly cut to shreds, overwhelmed on the break, three against one. He found Romulo in the box, but his shot looped up from Rönnow’s parry, and it took Schäfer to get back just in time, to head clear off his own line.

With quarter an hour up, the Union fans started to sing again as one, their protest over, the silence broken. And though their side needed the support, as Leipzig impressed with their pace, their skill and their intent, still they held firm, and always had an eye on the break, just as when Burke suddenly found himself free from Haberer’s flick on. Though his hard shot was well stopped by Maarten Vandervoort in the Leipzig goal, the flag went up for offside.

But the pressure was starting to tell, and the hosts took the lead when Rönnow found himself out of position, having come out to punch Diomade’s out-swinging cross away, superman-style. After Querfeld’s header out, the ball, however, dropped only, ultimately, at the foot of Finkgräfe, who wasted no time in finishing first-time before the prone stopper could scramble back into position.

They made it two just three minutes later, when Romulo found himself in a race with Querfeld, the longest of balls played from the keeper, Vandervoordt, dropping between them and Rönnow. Querfeld could only nod it into no-man’s-land, and the Brazilian striker lifted it expertly over the head of Union’s keeper. It was route-one, and somehow too easy.

Leipzig would hit the bar for the first time on 27 minutes, when Willi Orban’s header just wouldn’t drop quickly enough, with Rönnow stretching every sinew as he fell backwards trying to get a decisive touch. Things got worse though for the keeper, when, taking a goal kick, he immediately pulled up, signalling to the bench that he couldn’t go on. Karl Claus replaced him, making his Bundesliga debut in the toughest of situations, with Rönnow giving him a hug and a word as their paths crossed.

Claus wasn’t to wait too long for his first bit of action, as he made a wonderful save, at full stretch, flicking Christoph Baumgartner’s header onto the bar, his fingertips and reflexes working in brilliant harmony. The flag had gone up for offside, but the keeper hadn’t noticed at all. But if Union felt they had bad luck on their side, Baumgartner could have raised his own hand here, too, seeing another header off the bar, this time seeing it deflected on its way, and again bouncing away to safety.

Then, with two of the three minutes of time added onto the first half, suddenly Burke was sent away by Ilić, with El-Chadaille Bitshiabu having been caught napping. It was exactly what Union wanted, just what they needed, but where he had scored last week from a similar satiation, here Vandevoort stayed on his feet long enough to plant a seed of doubt in the striker’s mind. The keeper won the game of chicken, stopping the shot when it came, springing to his left.

Union started the second half better, spending a little time in the Leipzig half, with Burke and Ilić combining with Haberer, and though shortly afterwards Klaus made the first save of the half from Forzan Oudreago, Ilić squeezed off a shot over the bar from just outside the edge of the box. They were playing notably higher, with Leite appearing in the Leipzig area, and Haberer a couple of inches away from reaching Schäfer’s ball, pinged from the halfway line.

But they had to be watchful at the back. It took a combination of Leite, Rothe and Khedira to stop Baku as he spun and turned down the Leipzig right.

Eta made her first changes on the hour, with Trimmel, Ilić and Haberer making way for Josip Juranović, Ilyas Ansah and Aljoscha Kemlein. Juranović was immediately involved, first as his throw-in was cleared for a corner, then as the corner, which he took, was flicked wide by Querfeld.

But despite the positive signs, Diomande would work his magic again down the left, finding Baku with the cleverest, neatest of passes that he stabbed past Klaus’s outstretched boot.

After the flickerings that Union had shown, Leipzig upped their game again, and Nusa came close, flashing his shot across goal and past the back post. And even when they tried to drag themselves back into it, such as when Leite tussled with Diomande deep inside the Leipzig half, the referee called him up for a foul.

Diomande at the back was the least of their worries. He was a menace with the ball at his toe going forwards, and he carved out an opening for Baumgartner, all on his own, as he tricked and jinked his way through the forest of Union defender’s legs,  that the Austrian put just past the far post.

But maybe there was a twist in this most one-sided of games, yet, as Danilho Doekhi put so much power on his header from Juranović’s next corner that Vandevoordt could only palm it up and behind him into the goal. He caught it so hard it almost took the keeper with it into the net. Union had a sniff.

The hosts seemed to take the goal as an affront. First Querfeld had to clear off the line, then Johan Bakayoko crashed a volley off the post, bending his shot with his left foot in from the right. Nusa shot wide again, driving, straight as an arrow towards goal.

With eight minutes remaining, Eta brought Livan Burcu on for Schäfer. Still Union tried, still they strived; Kemlein flashed a volley wide from Burcu’s corner; Ansah had the ball in the net, but the flag went up immediately for offside.

The hosts were on the way to their fifth win on the bounce and the Champions League, but for Union, all focus is already being trained towards next week’s visit from FC Köln.