1. FC Union Berlin played out a thrilling 1-1 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday evening under the lights at the Alte Försterei. Benedict Hollerbach equalised following Mario Götze’s first-half opener after 66 minutes, before Tim Skarke’s 91st minute goal was ruled out by the slightest of offside decisions.

1. FC Union Berlin: Rönnow – Trimmel, Doekhi, Vogt, Leite, Rothe (65. Skov) – Kemlein (65. Schäfer), Khedira – Vertessen (84. Bénes), Hollerbach (76. Skarke), Jeong (65. Siebatcheu) 

SG Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp – Kristensen (38. Ebimbe), Tuta, Koch, Theate – Knauff (81. Brown), Skhiri, Larsson, Götze (65. Chaibi) – Ekitiké (65. Matanovic), Marmoush (81. Amenda) 

The starting XI

Bo Svensson made only a single change to the side that started in Kiel last weekend, meaning that at the back, it was business as normal with Frederik Rönnow in goal, behind a back three of Diogo Leite, Kevin Vogt and Danilho Doekhi.

On the flanks were Christopher Trimmel and Tom Rothe – on the right and left respectively, either side of Rani Khedira and Aljoscha Kemlein, meaning the front three were Yorbe Vertessen and Benedict Hollerbach alongside Woo-Yeong Jeong, replacing Tim Skarke, who returned to the bench.

Attendance: 22.012 

Goals: 0:1 Götze (14.), 1:1 Hollerbach (66.) 

Götze scores as Eintracht dominate the first half

There is something about playing under the floodlights. After a tumultuous, thrilling game, Benedict Hollerbach summed things up perfectly, when he called Union’s 1-1 draw with Eintracht “an emotional rollercoaster”.

If anything, Union’s goal scorer understated it.

 Thick plumes of black and orange smoke poured out from the away end at kick-off – the floodlights already on in the Alte Försterei, with the dark autumn sky hovering above. It was a fine evening for a game of football and the stadium was simmering from the get-go.

It was the visitors who started brightest – their danger man, Omar Marmoush, setting off onto a deep ball from the back which Kevin Vogt had to be sharp to get across to, as Eintracht’s top scorer suddenly appeared to be free to run through at Frederik Rönnow’s goal.

Eintracht then won a corner that Arthur Theate volleyed with the back of his heel – the ball dropping just over Rönnow’s goal. Yet, Union came straight back at them with pace – Vertessen and Hollerbach linking up, the latter hitting the byline and causing chaos as he tried to cut the ball back across goal with his left foot.

It was a thunderous beginning to the game and Frankfurt were keen to try to exploit Union’s press; Aljoscha Kemlein beat Ellyes Skhiri to a long ball at the ten-minute mark; Rasmus Kristensen couldn’t get on the end of Robin Koch’s next one, launched towards him from deep within Union’s half.

Eintracht’s opener did not come from long distance, rather a corner that led to an almighty scramble inside the Union box – the ball bouncing off Trimmel and Leite, leaving Rönnow unsighted as the ball suddenly sprung out to Mario Götze at the back post, who was looming two yards out from goal. The task was simple – all he had to do was stroke the ball home to make it 1-0 to Eintracht after 14 minutes of play.

It was the first goal that Union had conceded within the first half of a game so far this season.

There were still some positives for Union – Kemlein was a study in patient excellence, his timing in the tackle precise, as he rarely went to ground and always looked to get the ball moving straight away, the exception being an overhit ball out to Trimmel, as Union countered down the left flank.

With the opening 25 minutes played, Frankurt were the better side with the hosts struggling to find a way past them – whether over the top or out on the wing, Leite had to put the ball over his own bar after Marmoush had found space yet again, cutting in from the right as his side weaved triangles around the pitch. Götze was at the heart of everything, drifting between the lines of both midfield and attack. Marmoush was devilish and scurrying-like – it took a combination of Leite and Tom Rothe to stop him in his tracks by Union’s left-hand touchline.

As 30 minutes went by, Union had barely had a sniff, as Vertessen saw a high ball drop at his feet 25 yards out – he took a touch and hit a ferocious first-time effort, drawing an excellent diving save from the experienced Kevin Trapp in the Eintracht goal. It was certainly close and would have been a carbon copy of his beauty against Dortmund had it bustled the net.

The Belgian then turned provider as he burst past Theate on the right and drove a low cross into the box – the ball falling for Rothe, who hit it over the bar, as he leaned back on his shot.

The atmosphere under the lights was already at boiling point, however it went up a notch as Vertessen waited to take a corner and Theate tumbled Leite over. The referee showed them both a yellow card, somewhat inexplicably. Leite simply could not believe it – the crowd were incandescent.

When Hugo Ekitiké then caught Vogt with an elbow, following the Union defender’s superb challenge, the volume only grew higher. Vogt did equally as well on the other side a minute later, as he outpaced Marmoush in a footrace for a ball which was heading back towards his own goal. His speed is often forgotten, but in this instance, he was lightning quick across the turf.

Rönnow reacted quickly at his near post to turn Tuta’s header wide, before scrambling to hold the next one into his body, as the clock wound down towards half-time – Ekitiké flashed a drive wide of his right-hand post with the final kick of the half.

Hollerbach equalises, before Skarke’s winner is ruled out by a whisker

Vertessen had been one of the standout performers during the first half and almost as soon as the second got under way, he was away once again, daring his marker to lunge in – going this way and that, as he found Rothe overlapping on the left with a perfectly placed low pass that the left back put wide of the back post after only a couple of minutes played.

Union were getting closer. As Rönnow would remark later, “‘The first half was physical, but not very good. At half-time, we addressed the mistakes and then really started playing football.”  With only for minutes played, a long Rothe throw-in fell to the foot of Trimmel – he drove powerfully, the ball taking the slightest of deflections on its way through, only to see it cannon off the inside of the back post.

Kemlein then headed across goal after Jeong’s ball in, but couldn’t get enough purchase on it; Trimmel fired another that the crowd thought had struck Hugo Larsson’s hand; Hollerbach wanted a penalty after he was bundled over by Tuta in the box.

Union were relentless, keeping the ball as much as they were racing after it in the first half. Yet, Vogt was now acting as a quarterback – aiming long passes largely out towards Rothe, as Union stepped ever higher up the pitch. It was working, and Hollerbach slid in to strike Doekhi’s swinging cross from inside the six-yard box, however he could only put it too close to Trapp.

At the other end, Rönnow stopped Eric Dina Ebimbe’s cross before it could reach the waiting boot of Ekitiké as he rapidly arrived into the box.

Svensson made his first changes with just over an hour played; Jordan, Robert Skov and Andras Schäfer on for Jeong, Kemlein and Rothe.

As has happened so often throughout Svensson’s short reign here, the change would quickly reap reward.

Skov’s first-touch was to knock the ball ahead of himself, suddenly in space, as he powered across the halfway line – his second touch opened himself out, and he took another before sliding a perfect ball over to the left to Hollerbach, who finished with an impudent little dink over the top of Trapp as he came out. The stadium erupted but was suddenly silenced as the linesman’s flag went up for offside.

It took what felt like an eternity for the decision to be made from afar, yet few cared the length of time it took once it came back in Union’s favour. With over 20 minutes left to play, Union were firmly back in the game.

Hollerbach had barely left the field, replaced by Tim Skarke, when Theate threw himself at Schäfer, receiving a second yellow card for his troubles. He complained all the way – the Unioner’s roars bellowing in his ears as he trudged off the pitch, soon to be replaced by a riotous call and response between the Waldseite and the Gegengerade, “Eisern… Union”, they chanted, each and every one of them.

Each time that Union held onto the ball, Rönnow was out of his box, urging his teammates on, bouncing on his toes – his hands a rush of waves and gestures.

The drama was unrelenting. Trimmel received a yellow card with ten minutes left; Schäfer got one for pulling Igor Matanovic back; then Dina went down under Vogt’s challenge as they both chased back towards Rönnow’s goal; Skov crossed from the right, although it was hooked away to safety with only seconds remaining of normal time.

However, that wasn’t it for drama. Trimmel found Schäfer down the left – he crossed into the box before the ball was alid off precisely by the substitute, László Bénes, to where Tim Skarke had found an inch of space at the near post. He finished with a bang, putting his laces straight through the ball.

As the roof just about came off, the referee deferred to the video assistant, spotting an offside in the build-up. Again, it took an age, but this time the dice wouldn’t fall in Union’s favour – the goal was ruled out.

The final minutes went by in a blur – a wild, seething mess of long balls and last-ditch tackles, yet there were no further goals, only the chaos and stilted joy of such a scene under the twinkling lights.

Hollerbach was caught between emotions. “I'm not completely disappointed, but I'm not completely happy either,” he said. “In the end, it's probably two points lost. When it comes to offsides, I would like to see more decisions in favour of the forwards, after all, we all want to see more goals.”

His coach echoed the sentiment, when it came to the result at least. "Ultimately, it was small things that denied us the win today, which we would otherwise certainly have deserved."

But Union could shake off their disappointment at the result – the spectacle was quite simply something else.