1. FC Union Berlin lost 2-0 on Friday night to the Bundesliga’s Eintracht Frankfurt in the DFB Pokal. But they were courageous and looked like they could spring a great upset until Tanja Pawollek’s 83^rd minute opener. Barbara Dunst made it two, a minute into time added on.

1. FC Union Berlin: Bösl – Sakar, Markou, Becker, Steinert, Metzker (86. Reissner) –  Halverkamps (66. Weiß), Janez (66. Frank), Moraitou, D. Orschmann - Heiseler 

Eintracht Frankfurt: Johannes – Riesen (71. Senß), Doorsoun, Veit (79. Gräwe), Lührßen – Pawollek, Reuteler, Dunst, Freigang (89. Nachtigall) – Prasnikar (71. Anyomi), Chiba (79. Wamser) 

The starting XI

Ailien Poese made just the two changes to the team that started last weekend’s win over Freiburg II, though the bigger difference to that side was tactical, playing a back five. In goal, facing her former club, was Cara Bösl, behind Judith Steinert, Marie Becker and Eleni Markou, while Fatma Sakar and Pia Metzker, in for Anna Weiß, were the full-backs, right and left, respectively.

Korina Janež returned to midfield in place of Celine Frank, where she joined Athanasia Moraitou in the middle, with Dina Orschmann on the left and Antonia Halverkamps on the right. This allowed captain, Lisa Heiseler, to lead the line up front.

Attendance: 8.021 

Goals: 0:1 Pawollek (83.), 0:2 Dunst (90+1.) 

Union Fight, Ailien's plan comes together

Ailien Poese had said during her press conference midweek that her plan was simple when her side finally faced Eintracht Frankfurt in the last 16 of the DFB Pokal. Never before had Union’s women’s team come so far in the cup, and they weren’t going to go out without a fight. “We’ll sit deep,” she said, “stay compact, and be courageous.”

On a freezing night in this corner of south-east Berlin, when the lights of the Alte Försterei seemed to burn with a new meaning, her side did that and more. The superb, “exhausted”, Marie Becker put it best post-match, though, in her beautifully bluntest of manners.

“We really managed to piss them off”, she said, and it was the highest of praise for herself and her team-mates. To do that to a side like that of Eintracht takes some doing.

Union are second in the 2. Liga, Eintracht are in the same spot, a league above. But there were times the gulf in class barely told at all.

Accordingly, Union sat back initially, Eleni Markou leaving a touch on Remina Chiba as they battled early, Barbara Dunst restricted to pinging a shot well over Cara Bösl’s goal from distance as their hosts plugged every available gap in front of her. Lisa Heiseler was often a lone presence up front, waiting for the long ball to come her way, as Dina Orschmann and Antonia Halverkamps held their runs on the flanks, biding their time, waiting for a chance to come their way.

Union were resolute, and utterly determined, playing with their heads up and their elbows out, and when Doorsoun caught Heiseler from behind near the halfway line, Union’s captain took her time to spot the ball for the free kick. They could wait.

So was the plan, after all. Eintracht were reduced to potshots at times. It was working perfectly. When Nadine Riesen tried to skip past Pia Metzker, Judith Steinert was on hand to shepherd the ball out of play with the minimum of fuss.

Meanwhile, Union were all the while covered by their keeper, Bösl, facing her former club, a point to prove. She held Doorsoun’s high ball towards Chiba with ease, just as she did when Riese, attacking up the right hand side constantly, sailed her next cross straight into her arms with a quarter of an hour played.

Union started to show flashes as the half wore on. Orschmann won their first corner, turning her two markers inside out. Korina Janež flickered in midfield, Heiseler couldn’t quite get high enough to head Halverkamps’ cross back towards goal.

Eintracht, however, were showing their own patience, too, building up moves from the back, swinging ball after ball in to test Bösl, letting their pace and strength work on the Union defenders’ minds. Becker though was an oasis of calm, heading another Riesen cross out after 25 minutes, having made a superb tackle on Laura Freigang just a couple of minutes earlier. Alongside her Steinert and Markou were equally resolute.

Bösl stopped Chiba’s shot from the edge of the box with half an hour played at chest height, taking the sting out of the ball, before Union countered again, winning two corners, the second of which saw Nina Lührßen stretching while on the ground to scramble the ball away from Markou, but only sending it as far as Steinert who’s shot went wide.

Suddenly Union’s tails were up, and Metzker played a fine ball across the width of the pitch for Moraitou, now out on the right. Orschmann stabbed a chipped pass across goal for Metzker, who, too, headed wide under pressure all the time.

Moraitou was everywhere, and she threw herself at the ball as Riesen again threatened to hit one in from the right. She was clattered by Laura Freigang from behind as half time loomed, a sudden hush coming over the crowd as she writhed in pain.

The Frankfurt players came together, discussing what was going wrong, and it was they who cut the more frustrated figures as they went down the tunnel at the break. Poese’s plan had worked almost flawlessly so far.

Weiß’s goal is ruled out, before Pawollek and Dunst break Union’s hearts at the death

Again, Union threw themselves into challenge after challenge as soon as the second half started, and Markou went down hurt as she tussled with Chiba and Lührßen in the Union box. She had, of course, cleared the ball first though before she went down.

It was all hands on deck, Janež hoicking one away, Becker the next, before Dunst rattled the outside of the post with a drive from distance. It was the closest that Eintracht had come to goal.

Union now rarely had the ball, but still they held on, that bravery Poese had talked of shining through. Orschmann made three tackles in a row in the box. Lührßen whipped in a corner which Steinert did well to flick over her own bar from within the crowd, her hundred-plus Bundesliga games-worth of experience telling on this biggest of nights. Markou stood up to Dunst’s drive, before Chiba shot wide of the back post. Bösl held her next effort, hit too close to the stopper to trouble her too much.

Union broke with 55 minutes played after Orschmann suddenly sprung past Dunst but Heiseler, the loneliest woman on the pitch for much of the game up top, was offside when the ball was hit towards her. She was, too, when Janez found an inch of space for once and tried to set her free into the Eintracht half.

It was all going one way, and the Unioner’s hearts were in their mouths as Chiba rose unchallenged in the box, but her header, though perfectly timed, crashed off the back post. Time had stood still; it was almost implausible. She then put the next chance over, before Reuteler passed up an even bigger one, scuffing her shot at a grateful Bösl when she had all the time in the world to pick her spot.

They were all at it. Geraldine Reuteler kicked the air in frustration having blazed another effort wide that she should have put on target.

With 25 minutes to play, Poese made her first changes, bringing on Celine Frank and Anna Weiß for the tiring legs of Janez and Halverkamps, but it was Becker who made the next big challenge, timing her lunge on Chiba in the box to perfection.

Frank, as trusty as they come, however was soon in the thick of things, turning in the middle before being brought down by the substitute Etonam Anyomi. The referee ignored her and the crowds’ cries though, calling a foul from Moraitou a moment later instead. Their joy as the free kick sailed again into the hands of Bösl was palpable, almost deafening.

It was as if scripted. Poese had told us all along what they would do, and suddenly it seemed almost to come true. Union knew that they only needed a chance, and they thought they had it as suddenly Weiß was away, slotting past Stina Johannes, to delirium, but she was immediately called offside. Becker had seen the flag go up immediately, she shrugged it off.

They almost had another with ten minutes to play as Oschmann and Frank combined, Heiseler taking the ball on in the box and turning brilliantly, laying the ball back off for Orschmann, whose difficult shot dropped over the bar.

But suddenly at the other end Eintracht got the goal that they had strived so long for, as Pawolek headed the ball backwards, past a despairing Bösl, for the opener. It was cruel. Doubly so, as it had come from a set-piece.

Heiseler was first to the ball as it hit the back of the net, charging with it to the centre-circle as the Eintracht players still celebrated by the touchline. Union weren’t giving up, not yet, and Markou pounded the ground in frustration after she headed Moraitou’s clever, swinging free kick wide of goal, having snuck in round the back of their defence.

They fought and they fought. Sakar barged Dunst off the ball on the touchline before somehow summing up the energy to beat Anyomi, taking a foul for her troubles, and winning another free kick, but Moraitou could only send this one into Johannes’ arms.

But for all they’d given, there was a crueller blow to come, as Union pushed up a final time. Tellingly, it was the Eintracht substitutes who would break Union’s hearts. Frankfurt broke through Carlotta Wamser on the right, she squared it to Sophie Nachtigall who laid it off for Dunst. took the ball on the edge of the box and bent it past Bösl.

As the final whistle came, Steinert was the only one to collapse to the floor, even though they all must have needed it. But maybe it was just the noise of the corwd and the pride in their performance that kept them upright.

They had lost, but, as Poese said afterwards, “We are very satisfied… but I think that against an opponent like Eintracht Frankfurt, who are playing at the top of the Bundesliga, you can lose.”

She was right to be satisfied. Her plan had so nearly come together.