Jenny Hipp had been superb all game, fighting, harrying, tackling in the middle of the pitch, even when at times – particularly in a tough first half – when it looked like Eintracht Frankfurt could run away with things. She wasn’t the only one, the whole side fought with their lives to drag themselves back into this game, but with 89 minutes played, and still a goal down she first won a penalty and then stepped up to take it.

Many would have wilted as Lina Altenburg sprung to her right to save the spot-kick, but Hipp carried on her run, her momentum taking her onto the ball, now free in front of her, the goal gaping, Eintracht players suddenly flooding into the box towards her.

But Hipp got there first. She crashed the ball home. The Gegengerade, packed with 7,000 fans on a cold Monday night the week before Christmas, erupted; it was an equaliser that felt like a winner.

It had been a long night up to then. But when Antonia Halverkamps barged Nina Lührßen off the ball, shoulder to shoulder, before turning her inside out with a minute played, the crowd knew Union were up for this. They wanted revenge, of course, for the loss in last year’s cup.

But it was never going to be easy - nothing is in the Bundesliga, especially against last year’s third placed side - and Nicole Anyomi tested the returning Cara Bösl after only a minute, having been pushed too far wide by Samaha Steuerwald to get a good enough angle to test the keeper. The two met again, just two minutes later, on the other side, as the Union defender tracked the Frankfurt striker the width of the pitch.

The excellent Steuerwald, too, would get her moment to shine. But she’d have to battle all night long to get there; Frankfurt were superb in that first half.  

The sharp midfielder Ereleta Memeti shrugged off Eileen Campbell, threading a ball the way of Geraldine Reuteler that Bösl swept up, but then came Union’s first big chance. Anna Weiß hit a lovely long ball the way of Sophie Weidauer that she brought into her stride and took towards Altenburg in the Eintracht goal. She managed to drag it out from under her feet in time, but Altenburg was out quickly and stopped her in her tracks before she could squeeze a shot away.

Union were warming to things, and a lovely one two between Steinert and Dina Orschmann saw the former skip away down the left.

But it wasn’t enough. After only 13 minutes Anyomi found a pocket of space by the byline, pulling the ball back for Laura Freigang, timing her run to perfection. The German international finished coolly with the inside of her right foot. Bösl dived, but it was too well placed.

Weidauer’s clever pass out left to Steinert, hit with the outside of her boot, cross-field, aside, things were going all the guests’ way, and it was somehow inexplicable that when Freigang gave Katja Orschmann the slip, she only found the gap between Reuteler and Anyomi, when both were in the box, screaming for the ball.

Reuteler dragged her own shot wide soon afterwards, when she only had Bösl to beat.

Still, Union carried on; Halverkamps found the ever-present Weidauer who won a corner, taken short and cleared from the near post. Hipp was also endlessly on the move in the middle, chasing down black shirt after black shirt, ultimately seeing yellow when she pulled back that of Freigang, before starting a move through sheer determination that saw Campbell almost create a chance when she crossed from the Frankfurt byline.

Judith Steinert summed up the fight, chasing 35 yards in a foot race with Freigang, somehow making up a metre on her, just knocking the ball back to Bösl with the most outstretched of toes. Bösl also impressed, saving from her former teammate Reuteler on the stroke of 30 minutes, then claiming a softer effort from Elisa Senß three minutes after that.

With just over half an hour played, Ailien Poese made her first change, taking off Katja Orschmann for Marina Georgieva. Still, the hosts were largely pinned back into their own half, with Campbell dropping ever deeper in search of the ball, and only  a gorgeous backheel from Lisa Heiseler suddenly looking to give them the drop on Eintracht as the half wore on.

Union’s best move of the half came with only a couple of minutes of it left to play, when Steinert darted up the left, found Hipp who nutmegged Pia-Sophie Wolter, to find Halverkamps, laying it off in turn for Weiß. But having seen another short corner swing via the other side of the pitch, over a scene of all-too-fleeting chaos in the Frankfurt box, the guests broke again at pace. This time it took a fine, last-ditch tackle by Weiß, who had made it the length of the pitch in no time at all, to stop Reuteler.

The break for half time couldn’t come soon enough. Union needed a moment to reorganise.

Despite the second half starting with the worrying sight of Georgieva stumbling to ground having been caught by Anyomi - though after treatment she hopped off under her own strength – Union looked reborn. Down to ten players, they attacked up the left, Campbell and Heisler trying to carve out a bit of space by the touchline. When Anyomi countered, Steuerwald was there with a wonderful tackle.

Then Union came again, with Campbell again flying down the left. This time her cross was tipped out of danger by a flying Altenburg, but only as far as Weidauer, who was caught by Lührßen as she tried to catch the ball on the volley. The Union fans screamed for a penalty, cries that turned to derision when a free kick was instead given the other way.

Union had come out fighting, and though that one had been denied, Campbell won a penalty a minute later. She stepped up to take it herself, sending Altenburg the wrong way with a staggered run, but only to see it come back agonisingly off the inside of  the left-hand upright. She too never stopped. But now, she couldn’t believe her bad luck.

Roused, Union tore into Eintracht, winning another corner, before Halverkamps was thrown to the floor. With Lührßen now down in her own box and Halverkamps being treated, Weidauer and Georgieva came to the touchline to receive instruction.

Union, pushing up, were almost caught out when Freigang evaded their offside trap and found herself bearing down on Bösl’s goal, but again Georgieva made up the  ground in time to somehow win the ball. It was all hands-on-deck as Eintracht tried to turn the game back in their favour; Halverkamps clearing just ahead of Anyomi in the box; Hipp robbing Lisanne Gräwe and finding Weidauer.

Halverkamps tackled Gräwe again in the middle, elbows out, before Georgieva made it back again, just intime,  to clear over her own bar with just over an hour now played out.

Weidauer, Orschmann and Halverkamps were soon off, replaced by Nele Bauereisen, Ida Heikkinen and Athanasia Moraitou. And almost immediately Union were back in the game. Hipp was fouled out right, the resulting free kick hit deep towards the back post by Heiseler. And as the ball bounced around, Steuerwald threw herself at it, sliding in to finish first time. The centre-back had played in every minute of every game in the league this season, and her first ever goal for the club could not have come at a better time.

The joy wouldn’t last long, however, as Remina Chiba picked  her spot superbly with 76 minutes played, driving the ball low and across Bösl, scoring inside the back post, somehow taking all the air out of the stadium. It was almost three when Anyomi nodded down for Freigang, but Bösl stopped brilliantly, diving full stretch to her left.

Union weren’t giving up, however, and it took a somewhat brutal trip from Gräwe to stop Campbell as she approached the edge of the box. Hipp  took the free kick, and the 7,000 fans on the Gegengerade erupted as it hit the side netting, certain that it had gone in,.

With five minutes to play, Heiseler was off, replaced by Naika Reissner, the fans favourite, who hadn’t played since limping off tragically against Freiburg back in October. Still Union battled, refusing to buckle, and Anyomi was booked for a foul on Hipp, refusing to get out of the way.

Then it happened. With only two minutes normal time remaining the tireless Steinert won a penalty for a handball off Noemi Ivelj, having bustled her way into the box from the inside left. Hipp stood up, scoring the rebound. It had been as dramatic as it had been hard fought. And few deserved it as much as she.

There was still six minutes added on at the  end, time that stretched out even longer as Bösl came out to punch á long ball clear, catching Hayley Raso as she did so.

The time dragged on, with Reissner and Campbell straining every sinew to reach the flying passes coming their way. But eventually it came. After the final whistle, with the crowd in full voice the players stood in the tightest of circles.

It was a draw, a single point in a long season. But few will as much like a win.