Second Round DFB-Pokal
DFB-Pokal, short for Deutscher Fußball-Bund, is an important annual football competition in Germany. This knockout competition holds 64 clubs. All clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga compete, as well as 4 clubs from the 3.Liga and 24 clubs from the regional Liga’s. What’s so nice about the DFB-Pokal, is that all clubs start at once in round 1. Therefore, a regional club will get the opportunity to play against great clubs as Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. The smaller clubs always play a home match.
The first round of this year’s DFB-Pokal was played on 09/08 and 10/08. The second round with the remaining 32 clubs was played last week.
The winner of the 2018-19 DFB-Pokal, Bayern Munich, had a tough night playing against second-division club VfL Bochum. Bochum scored the first goal, and the score remained 1-0 for almost the entire match. It took der Rekordmeister 83 minutes to finally score, and they did so again within another 6 minutes. Bayern Munich escaped with a win (1-2).
A day later, Borussia Dortmund had to play against Bundesliga-leader Borussia Mönchengladbach. The Battle of the Bourssias was also one of late goals: until the 71th minute it was a goalless match. Borussia Mönchengladbach were the first to score. However, as Bayern Munich did the night before, Borussia Dortmund turned the match around and finally won 2-1 at the Signal Iduna Park.
Overview clubs third round DFB-Pokal:
Union Berlin | 1. FC Saarbrücken |
VfB Stuttgart | Hoffenheim |
Bayern Munich | Karlsruher SC |
Schalke 04 | Bayer 04 Leverkusen |
RB Leipzig | Werder Bremen |
SC Verl | Kaiserlautern |
Borussia Dortmund | Fortuna Düsseldorf |
Hertha BSC | Eintracht Frankfurt |
Every year, cup final is played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The cup final winner qualifies for the DFL-Supercup and the UEFA Europa League, unless the winner has already qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
The DFB-Pokal has been won by Bayern Munich 19 times, 6 times by Werder Bremen, 5 times by Eintracht Frankfurt, and 4 times by Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 and 1. FC Köln. Hamburger SV, Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart have won the DFB-Pokal 3 times.