The dust from last Saturday’s 4-4 draw had barely had time to settle when Union and Hamburg didn’t so much as kick it all back up again; they threw it to the winds, they launched it, scattered it, left it piled about Germany’s second city in dirty great dunes. And as Nele Bauereisen headed off to the Union fans in their corner of this monumental stadium, her arms outstretched having scored the winner in the 113^th minute, the sneaking suspicion was that maybe she could take flight after all. Because when else hadn’t happened over the course of these two games?

One in the league, one in the cup. 210 minutes played. 15 goals scored. But for all that, at the end, one thing mattered more than anything else. As she rounded Jule Baum in the 113^th minute to put them 4-3 up, Union were in the quarter-finals of the DFB Pokal for the first time in their history.

If the make-up of the squad is much changed, a common thread that has run through this side over recent years is their sheer, bloody, bull-headed refusal to know when they’re beaten. Having gone two down again today, just as they had last week, it was inevitable that the drama would continue. We never doubted it.

It was to be a long day, and a slog to get there, though, even if Union, again, started as the better side. As the four-hundred-plus travelling fans greeted kick off, Tomke Schneider and Jill Janssens attacked immediately down the right, switching places, putting Carla Morich and Annaleen Böhler onto the back foot, bringing Bauereisen and Lisanne Gräwe into play. Janssens’ touch after five minutes was silken, bringing down a high ball; her cross, floated into the box as delicately as a spider’s web cast to the wind, was as delicate.

At the back, they looked solid and determined. Camilla Linberg cried out when tackled by Judit Pujols and Samantha Steuerwald as she entered the Union box; Amber Tysiak rose above Melanie Brunnthaler to win a header on the halfway line.

But last weekend’s ghosts weren’t far away as Hamburg opened the scoring against the run of play, capping a move that started with Linberg failing to connect properly with a bicycle kick she threw herself elegantly at, but ended with her lifting the ball over Nadine Böhi, the ball crashing down off the bar along the way. Schneider had smashed a clearance that came back into play off Kamber's face. It was a goal laced with good fortune for the hosts. 

Just as when in the same position last week, Union tried to play their way back into things. Gräwe pounced onto a loose ball in the middle; Pujols clipped a diagonal Bauereisen’s way. But their momentum was stalled as Lina Hausicke, already having won a handful of tackles in the battleground of midfield went down, her ankle seeming to bend in a direction it surely shouldn’t. Lia Kamber dropped back into her position before, to some general astonishment, Hausicke was back on the pitch within minutes to rise up in the box, unable to guide her header goalwards with any great danger. Reissner was next down, coming out worse in a challenge with Magou Doucoure that saw the Unioner wincing and the Hamburg right-back booked. Steuerwald’s equally crunching challenge on Linberg saw her get the same punishment just a few minutes later.

Hamburg were resolute, organised and had a clear plan. It was tough out there.

Still, Union saw most of the ball, with Gräwe and Hausicke controlling the middle, and Schneider curling her next menacing cross into the box. Bauereisen was just an inch away from heading it goalwards. Baum had, to this point, been largely untested, despite the pressure ramping up, but she stretched brilliantly, arching her back as she went, to tip Janssens’ chip over the bar. She held Kamber’s scuffed shot from the edge of the box after 28 minutes with far greater ease.

Pujols and Reissner were starting to rekindle their flourishing partnership on the left, the former winning a corner. But from the break that the hosts sprung from it, with half an hour up, HSV made it 2-0. Again. And again, it came from a moment of certain fortune for the hosts, a deflection this time off a Hamburg player sending the ball back into the box, volleyed home through a fog of red-clad defenders by Paulina Bartz.

Déjà vu rippled through the stadium, especially as Kamber rounded Baum, turning back on herself to roll the ball towards a now empty goal, only to see it bend agonisingly away and past the back post. Maybe it was too early. The Swiss ingenue had made it 2-1 here last week only in the 47^th minute, after all.

But the parallels ended there. This time, the break would come without an Union goal. Schneider volleyed wide before driving over from the right; Reissner got caught down a dead end as she cut in from the left; Kamber saw her shot saved again by Baum as, on the turn, she put it too down the middle.

Marie-Louise Eta sent her players out early, stroking passes around, waiting for the opponents who seemed to take an age. Waiting for the re-start. Music played; they looked calm, but inside they must have been seething. Pujols started by tackling Linberg, waist high, but winning the ball before the latter took a certain revenge, clattering Hausicke.

They were going to have to be patient. Bartz tackled Hausicke on the edge of the HSV box, not long after Pujols had pulled her cross too far back to a similar, unoccupied space. Baum dropped a shoulder on Bauereisen like the cockiest kid on the playground.

At the other end, Linberg hit her free kick wonderfully from 25 yards, before Böhi made two fantastic stops. The first, as she was caught almost off guard, the ball bouncing high on the line at her. But the second was the match of anything seen so far, falling backwards as she tipped Doucouré’s huge drive over.

Union were hanging on by a thread as Eta made three changes at once, bringing on Dina Orschmann, Sophie Weidauer and Jella Veit for Schneider, Gräwe and Reissner. While Orschmann would prove particularly vital, Kamber dropped back into midfield, returning to her role as string-puller in chief, as Veit made up a re-formulated back three with Steuerwald and Tysiak.

It paid off. Steuerwald advanced up the left, exchanging passes with Orschmann who cut the ball back from the byline perfectly for Veit. Opting for precision over power, she hit the ball goalwards with the inside of her boot, through Nigar Mirzaliyeva’s legs, leaving Baum flat-footed and Union back in the hunt.

It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t have to be. The equaliser, though, was top drawer. Pujols and Weidauer conferred for an age as they stood over a free kick, 25 yards out. Pujols took it, whipping the ball past Baum and inside the right-hand post with her left. It was a fine strike, worthy of a Cup win, worthy of a fine game such as this was turning into.

Baum held onto the ball as tight as could be after Hausicke’s volley flew into her midriff. Orschmann could only watch as her diving header flashed wide of the back post. Doucoure dragged wide, across goal, having found herself behind Union’s defence and with only Böhi to beat, if from an angle.

Orschmann, scorer of the final equaliser last week, had come on like a force of nature, and she had more than a hand in Union’s third, overcoming Böhler to put a cross through her legs for Bauereisen to strike high and hard into the roof of the net.

Madness prevailed. For the extent of this saga, spread at this point over almost two full games in a single stadium, unbelievably, it was the first time Union had taken the lead.

But, though they would have further chances through Orschmann and Weidauer, it was all-hands-on-deck for Union as first Weidauer came back to win the ball in her own box, then as Böhi flung herself across Nikola Karczewska to wrestle the ball away into her grasp.

If Union thought they were going to ride off into the sunset, they had another think coming. For some things, destiny among them, cannot be dodged, and the seemingly inevitable onset of extra time was triggered when Jonna Wrede did the, if not impossible, then at least implausible, when she cracked her shot off the underside of the bar with four minutes of the six added on to play.

3-3. They had shared 14 goals in 180 minutes so far. Now they were going to have to play another 30. 

Extra time started off with Bauereisen and Orschmann again linking up, and Anna Weiß, on for Janssens just before the end of normal time, attacking up the right. Steuerwald drilled her header from the next corner on target, but Baum somehow turned it around the post, showing wrists as strong as her reflexes were fast.

But, the next twist in this most engaging of tales wasn’t far away, as Steuerwald tussled with Karczewska out by Union’s right-hand touchline. Already on a yellow, Union’s captain received her next almost as soon as the Hamburg player hit the floor, her hand going to her face. Steuerwald gave the armband to Hausicke; Union were down to ten.

They kept on, with Weiß crossing dangerously from the right, with Orschmann driving from the middle, and with Weidauer and Bauereisen trying to link up. But fighting the tiredness in their legs and the hosts, with their player advantage, had ever more of the ball the longer this madness went on.

Judith Steinert came on for Pujols in the 109^th minute, a calm head on experienced shoulders and she immediately made her way up the line, looking to release the pressure any way she could, but when it came, it happened in the most impossible of ways. Bauereisen, who had run down alleyway after alleyway, who had played all 90 minutes of the league game, and would last all 120 here, burst free a final time, a yard ahead of Böhler. She took a touch, rounding Baum as she came out, and finished without batting an eyelid, soaring away to the Union fans, her arms stretched out, as if in tribute to the seaside setting.

The tension still coursed through them as the time ticked over. Böhi hoicked a clearance away having almost been caught dawdling, then held Stoldt’s free kick above her head as the whole stadium stopped stock still for a moment. She dropped onto the ball when presented with it from a drop ball in Union’s favour in the 199^th minute. She did so again in the 120^th.

And then it was over. The HSV players looked broken, while Union’s poured onto the pitch as one, lead by Lisa Heiseler, to their fans. They had done the impossible. They had created history.

They’ll be talking about this in Berlin and Hamburg for a long time to come yet.