It was a draw that somehow felt like a win. FC Bayern München were supposed to be unstoppable, an irresistible force; but it took them 93 minutes – and the thinnest of shavings of Ilyas Ansah’s right boot - to rescue a point against a superb 1. FC Union Berlin. And for the remarkable Danilho Doekhi... he now has six goals in league and cup. He can currently do no wrong. 

It all started with a gorgeous pass from Aljoscha Kemlein, flicked out left for Oliver Burke, who ran at Konrad Laimer, the turf crumbling and flying beneath his feet, like he was running in the Grand National. The sun was setting over the main stand, the Alte Försterei in fine voice, as Harry Kane got dismissed by referee, Florian Exner, like a naughty schoolboy, demanding a yellow card from Rani Khedira for his tug on Leon Goretzka.

But Union were superb from the off. Kemlein was pulling the strings in midfield, hitting a fine pass the other way, out to Janik Haberer after seven minutes. Burke was constantly on the shoulder, and he slipped a neat ball across the middle that Dayot Upamecano had to hit out for a corner.

Haberer hit it deep, it was flicked on by Querfeld, when Iyas Ansah nodded home. It was his 21^st birthday, but the celebrations wouldn’t last long.

The Unioner couldn’t believe it; as with last week, their joy was dimmed by the video assistant ruling it out for an offside. Ansah’s toe had been maybe a millimetre off, maybe less. As with last week, too, no-one in the stadium had seen it. Their opprobrium and frustration rang out before they started up again.

Roared on by the crowd, however, Union kept up their pressure, and Konrad Laimer saw a yellow card after only 15 minutes for his foul on Ansah - Josip Stanisic was lucky to get away without the next a few minutes later for his dive, having overhit the ball as he charged into the Union box. Haberer whipped the free kick in, but it was headed away, just before Danilho Doekhi could get his head on it.

Doekhi, however, has got in the habit of scoring vital goals. His time would come. Again. And then again after that.

Bayern tried to settle, and Kane won a free kick 30 yards out when Schäfer caught him as he struggled, uncharacteristically, to bring the ball under control – though, a final flourish aside, he had few chances today. Kimmich clipped it in, but Diogo Leite was there, as ever, clearing the danger. Whenever they attacked, Union were back in place – composed and compact. Baumgart had said during midweek that they would need to be quick onto the ball when out of possession, and so it proved here.

Haberer proved this when refusing to give up a lost cause against Stanisic up by the Bayern byline. The ball came back to Burke, who won a corner, and it was from this that Union finally took the lead.

Haberer crossed it low and hard to Doekhi who hit it falling backwards, driving the ball under Manuel Neuer, it slipping under him like a bar of soap. 

This time they weren’t to be denied, and the Unioner knew it.

They were irrepressible now, with Laimer forced to pass dangerously back to Neuer, hemmed back by Rothe; the Bayern keeper then saved from Ansah’s shot from just outside the box.

But as the half wore on Bayern started to find their way into the game. Oliseh was appearing more regularly on the right, but it was from the opposite side that their equaliser came. When Haberer pushed Luis Diaz down to the byline, the Colombian striker somehow stretched out, not only winning the ball, but dragging it back to where he could stand up and lash an unstoppable shot, from an almost impossible angle, past Rönnow, the ball flying in. It was a remarkable piece of skill, a superb finish.

Diaz would put a far easier chance wide not long after when through one on one with Rönnow, but even that had come after a remarkable Neuer stop from Ansah, instinctively throwing his right hand out as panic broke out in the box from another Union set-piece.

With three minutes of time added on almost up, Ansah, picked up the ball, turned back on himself and was forced back towards his own goal. Having opted eventually to clear, Kane, with his first real sniff on goal, saw his shot deflected out for a corner. It led to the ball in the back of Rönnow’s net, but Upamecano was clearly offside. It needed no double checking this time.

The second half saw Union straight back onto the front foot, Ansah causing havoc on the left, winning a free kick off Kimmich, hit deep and swirling towards the towering Doekhi, but Serge Gnabry did just enough to stop him getting anything on his headed attempt. The indomitable stand-in captain, Khedira, battled as hard as ever in the middle and the cheer that greeted his excellent tackle on Kimmich  was as great as when he won the next corner after 51minutes.

And still Union threatened; Upamecano just about stopping Burke as he bustled past him in full flight; Doekhi pushing the same man back on the  edge of the box before winning the ball back off Gnabry back in his own half a second later. It was if he’d been teleported across the pitch. Gnabry was taken off soon after, replaced by the precocious Lennart Karl.

With an hour gone, Olise found some space out by the right-hand post, but even as he hit his shot on target, Rönnow was there stopping his stabbed shot, somehow even holding on to it like a precious object. They were giving everything. Diaz cut in from the left; Schäfer was there to head clear. Still up from the set-piece, Jonathan Tah then volleyed Kimmich’s looping cross into the side netting.

Kane couldn’t catch a break. When he picked up the ball on the half way line,  Schäfer robbed him, when he looked to knock it down, his back to goal,  Querfeld outjumped him.

Baumgart made his first changes with 69 minutes gone; Kemlein and Haberer off for Alex Král and, making his first appearance of an injury-frustrated season, Josip Juranovic.

Bayern were now enjoying more possession, looking to push Union back – if mostly without any joy - and Leon Goretzka flashed a first time shot over the bar from the edge of the box, no other options appearing ahead of him as Union stuck to their task doggedly.

As Diaz passed back to Neuer, Juranović chased after him like a man possessed, all that frustration at missing out released in the race and the thrill of the moment. Under pressure, Burke – no slouch himself - was a whisker away from bating Upamecano to the keeper’s short pass out.

Baumgart made three further changes: Wooyeong Jeong, Derrick Köhn and Tim Skarke replacing Ansah, Burke and Rothe with little over ten minutes normal time remaining. Köhn was immediately in the action, fouled by Oliseh, winning a free kick, and a yellow card for the Bayern winger. But more then that, this would lead to Union taking the lead... and the stadium exploding.

The free kick was whipped into the six-yard-box by Juranović. Kane tried to clear, but it fell to none other than Doekhi again to rifle home. It was his fourth league goal of the season, added to one more in the cup against Gütersloh, and the second round winner against Bielefeld last week. Two had been with his head, three with his right boot, one with his left. He reeled away in utter delight, the stadium screaming his name. 

With Bayern now pushing up, desperate to maintain their unblemished record, Tim Skarke saw Neuer suddenly off his line, and launched the ball over him, sailing it through the night sky. For just a moment it looked to be drifting in, and the Unioner held their breaths, but it dropped just wide.

That wasn’t it, however. With 93 minutes played, Harry Kane, who had been reduced to a bit part all day long, suddenly popped up in the box to head Tom Bischof’s cross past a helpless Rönnow for the equaliser, though Union’s keeper still got a hand to it. It was his first real chance; he has a habit of taking them. Leite fell onto his back, stunned. But he was straight back up. They weren’t going to roll over, not now.

Bayern had a final throw of the dice, but as Upamecano headed their last corner over, it was done.  Union still hadn’t beaten them yet, but that mattered little. Not today.

"It's a great result, but we still have mixed feelings because we conceded so late in the game. For a brief moment, we had three points, but that's football. In the first half, we went on the attack early and played the kind of football we want to and are capable of playing. Our plan worked very well."

"Scoring once is great, but scoring twice is something else. We played very well until the last minute and 2-2 is a very good result against such a good team. Harry Kane did well at the end, of course, but it's a shame that we conceded a goal so late in the game." 

’Why should you be upset when you've seen a football match like that? Both sides put in a very good performance. We were able to deliver what we needed to deliver and also created some good chances in one or two situations. Even though I'm annoyed about the disallowed goal, as I said, we saw a very good game,"