The 8,000 Fortuna Düsseldorf supporters had made the long, 620km trip south mostly not even in hope, let alone expectation. It was more a sense of “I was there”, as with the Granada fans who took over the Bernabéu in 2012 for their team’s first trip to Real Madrid since 1976. Bayern Munich may have had their challenges this season, but Bayern away is still Bayern away. With this being only Fortuna’s second top-flight season in the last 21 years - and they spent 10 of those campaigns below even the second tier – what other way was there of seeing it?

By 5.25pm seeing was one thing and believing was another for those travelling Fortuna fans. They had been loud all afternoon, in sharp contrast to the majority of a half-interested, 75,000-capacity-but-not-really-full Allianz Arena, the locals sleepwalking through routine as their side have done for much of the campaign so far.

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Now, it had reached a crescendo in the away section. The feeling was all too familiar for Bayern. For Fortuna, though, it was delightfully fresh and new as players and fans came together to celebrate an improbable point after coming back from 2-0 and 3-1 down. It was “unbelievable”, as described by Dodi Lukebakio, the 21-year-old who had done more than most to make it happen.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a 2018 for Lukebakio, signed by Watford from his formative club Anderlecht last winter and then shipped out on loan to Fortuna after a mere 15 Premier League minutes, in a February defeat at West Ham. He has shown flashes of real potential this season, with his pace and directness just what this league likes, but it all came together in spectacular fashion in Munich. Lukebakio’s hat-trick stunned Bayern and Jérôme Boateng, who he made look plodding (not an uncommon occurrence this season, the less charitable might say) long before his stoppage-time equaliser sent Fortuna into what captain Oliver Fink described as “pure ecstasy”.

The Belgium under-21 striker wore the stunned expression of an X-Factor winner at full-time, and you couldn’t blame him. Lukebakio’s achievement wasn’t just a big deal by Fortuna’s standards, but by the Bundesliga’s. The last player to score a hat-trick against Bayern in the league was Ebbe Sand of Schalke, more than 17 years ago, in a win at the Olympiastadion in April 2001.

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Nobody had ever scored a Bundesliga hat-trick past Manuel Neuer before, though Cristiano Ronaldo did so in the epic 2016-17 Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid. “Please don’t compare me with Ronaldo,” Lukebakio smiled to waiting journalists when confronted with the fact in the corridors of the Allianz. We shouldn’t. After all, it took Portugal’s captain 120 minutes to complete the feat.

Knocking Bayern over at the moment is not the feat of attrition that Zinedine Zidane’s side were forced to pull out of the bag 18 months ago. Fortuna’s Friedhelm Funkel, the oldest head coach in the Bundesliga with a record six promotions to the Bundesliga under his belt, spoke openly about having material to work with after the game, detailing watching the videos of Bayern’s previous home stumbles closely in the week leading up to the game.

It showed. For most of the match Fortuna were hanging on by their fingernails, and when Thomas Müller casually poked home Bayern’s second in the 20th minute, it looked like goalkeeper Michael Rensing would be in for a predictably chastening afternoon on his return to the club where he grew up.

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Yet they came back into it, encouraged by Bayern’s brittleness at the back – with Boateng’s hesitancy letting in Lukebakio for the first and then playing him onside for the second, which VAR verified – and when they finally got a real sniff in the last 20 minutes, they executed Funkel’s plan perfectly, continuing to defend deep and play on the break, rather than letting the excitement of the opportunity get the better of them. “We learned from the games in Nuremberg and Frankfurt,” noted Funkel, “when we pushed for the equaliser too soon.”

Instead, it was Bayern who looked like the greenhorns, with Lukebakio’s equaliser not far off being a carbon copy of his second, as he sprinted from deep to expose a high defensive line and beat Neuer. Quite what the home defence was doing that far up the pitch in stoppage time while defending a one-goal lead was not a question for Funkel and his men, though it suggested Bayern have made little adjustment to their currently reduced circumstances.

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Adjustment is precisely what Funkel has been working on in recent times, with the 7-1 hiding at Eintracht Frankfurt five weeks ago underlining just what a tough task Fortuna face to secure a second consecutive season in the top flight for the first time since 1996. He has been through enough in his time at the Merkur-Spiel Arena to expect ups and downs, building a promotion contender despite the loss of the influential Ihlas Bebou to Hannover at the start of last season. Fortuna later overcame a blip to surge and win the Bundesliga 2 title on the final day.

They couldn’t have given any more here. “Kevin [Stöger] and I had cramps when we walked to the other end of the stadium to congratulate Dodi,” said left-back Niko Giesselmann on the equaliser. They subsequently had the galvanising feeling of having achieved a milestone, a reference moment for challenges to come. As Olaf Kupfer wrote in Westdeutsche Zeitung, the emergence of Lukebakio adds a sense of belief too. “With Lukebakio,” said Kupfer, “Düsseldorf actually has a difference-maker. This could be their insurance in the no-longer-joyless fight against relegation.” For now, a autumn afternoon in the sun will do just nicely.

Talking points

• It’s clear by now that Niko Kovac isn’t solely responsible for Bayern’s problems, but he looks more and more likely to carry the can for them in the immediate future. Uli Hoeness’s ominous assessment was that the club will “reassess” after this week’s Champions League game with Benfica, though it’s hard to see how that could change much.

• Bayern are now nine points adrift of leaders Borussia Dortmund. Twenty-four hours after the completion of Paco Alcácer’s permanent move in January was announced, the on-loan Spanish striker did what he does, coming on a substitute for Mario Götze and breaking the deadlock for BVB at a resolute Mainz. It’s the first time Dortmund have gone through the first 12 games of a Bundesliga season unbeaten.

• The only reason that Dortmund aren’t a speck of dust in the distance is Dieter Hecking’s excellent Borussia Mönchengladbach, who recovered from going a goal down after 19 seconds at home to Hannover to run out as 4-1 winners and stay four points behind. Gladbach now have nine straight home wins though concern for the injured Matthias Ginter, who fractured his eye socket and jaw in a collision with Noah Joel Sarenren Bazee, tempered the celebrations.