The ups & downs following the DFB-Pokal weekend
Wow, what an opening weekend of cup games. We’ve had some big scores, some close calls, some giant killing and the drama of a penalty shootout. Join us as we take a look at the results over the weekend.
Friday saw just a few games take place with some surprising results. TuS Koblenz took on Dynamo Dresden in a closer game than Dresden would have wanted or even predicted. The hosts even took an early lead through Dejan Bozic but it was cancelled out on 11 minutes from Dresden’s Erich Berko. Philip Heise then put the visitors ahead just after the break and it looked like the 2. Bundesliga side would see things out. That was until Dimitrios Popovits equalised for the hosts with 10 minutes to go. But it was the visitors that dug deep and with 6 minutes left Aias Aosman managed to grab the winner for Dresden. the final score 3-2.
Rot-Weiss Essen took the lead thanks to Benjamin Baier at home against Borussia Mönchengladbach but it was the Bundesliga side that managed to finish victorious thanks to goals from Jonas Hofmann and Raffael giving the foals a late win to progress into the next round.
Bayer, Bayer, Bayer, not the most impressive start to the campaign for Leverkusen as they took a trip to Karlsruher SC. 90 minutes of normal time past and things were still goalless. Bayer did manage to find the breakthrough in extra time and then the floodgates opened. It finished 3-0, with goals coming from Dominik Kohr, Joel Pohjanpalo and Leon Bailey.
Christoffer Nyman put Eintracht Braunschweig ahead away to Holstein Kiel but Dominick Drexler and Marvin Ducksch turned things around in our first upset of the weekend. 2-1 it finished.
Germania Halberstadt took on Freiburg and it was the Bundesliga side that came out on top thanks to two first half goals from Nils Petersen and Adli Lachheb. Kay Michel pulled one back late on the Germania but it wasn’t enough to overcome Freiburg, it finished 2-1.
Giants Bayern travelled to Chemnitzer FC and showed them exactly why they are in fact giants. The Bavarian’s thrashed poor Chemnitzer 5-0 in a rout where Lewandowski grabbed a brace to join the goals of Coman, Ribery and Hummels.
Yoshinori Muto and Daniel Brosinski helped Mainz pull across the finish line against Lüneburger SK Hansa in a 3-1 victory.
Leher TS Bremerhaven received a battering thanks to 1. FC Köln, with goals from Leonardo Bittencourt, Frederik Sørensen, Jhon Córdoba, Simon Zoller and Sehrou Guirassy completed the 5-0 decimation for the Europa hopefuls.
In the other results, SpVgg Unterhaching lost 4-0 to 1. FC Heidenheim, TuS Erndtebrück lost 3-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt, SV Eichede lost 4-0 to 2. Bundesliga hopefuls 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Hoffenheim beat Rot-Weiß Erfurt 1-0, Jahn Regensburg beat recent Bundesliga side Darmstadt 3-1, Arminia Bielefeld lost 3-1 after extra time to Dusseldorf, Werder Bremen beat FC Würzburger Kickers convincingly 3-0 and TSV 1860 Munich lost 2-1 to Ingolstadt in what I called last week the tie of the weekend.
1. FC Rielasingen-Arlen crumbled as Borussia Dortmund overcome their Supercup defeat to Bayern with a 4-0 victory. Goals came from Marc Bartra and a hat-trick from who else but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, improving the confidence of the side going into the Bundesliga season.
VfL Osnabrück pulled off the surprise of the weekend as they defeated Hamburger SV 3-1. You’d think that an opportunity for HSV to lift the mood around camp with a win against lower opposition would be a good start to the campaign. Oh no, they like to live on the edge and tempt fate. Could this be the year that their luck runs out?
Hannover 96 thrashed Bonner SC 6-2 to progress to the next round. You see that’s how you do it Hamburger! RB Leipzig also came out on top in a 5-0 win over SF Dorfmerkingen. 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 beat SV Sandhausen 2-1, SpVgg Greuther Fürth frantically beat SV Morlautern 5-0, 1. FC Saarbrücken managed to sneak past 1. FC Union Berlin 2-1 after extra time. VfL Bochum were 2 up after 3 minutes as they beat FC Nöttingen 5-2, Eintracht Norderstedt came close to an upset but Wolfsburg managed to overcome them in a 1-0 victory.
Another shock comes along as historical 1. FC Magdeburg beat Bundesliga side FC Augsburg who are one of my tips to go down this season, remember that.
Who doesn’t love a penalty shoot out, well maybe not as a fan but as a neutral it’s excellent excitement, right? Energie Cottbus took on VfB Stuttgart which finished 2-2 and went all the way to the lottery of penalties where Stuttgart managed to seal the victory in a 4-3 penalty triumph.
SV Wehen Wiesbaden beat Erzgebirge Aue 2-0, MSV Duisburg went down 2-1 to 1. FC Nürnberg, another shock as SC Paderborn 07 beat St. Pauli 2-1, BFC Dynamo lost 2-0 at home to Schalke and Hansa Rostock held their own against Hertha BSC until 2 very late goals for Hertha that broke the hearts of Rostock fans.
So overall a very interesting weekend of Pokal action. The Bundesliga returns on Friday with the champions Bayern taking on Leverkusen for the opening fixture. But there is 2 more big opening fixture which should make excellent viewing; Wolfsburg Vs Dortmund and Schalke Vs RB Leipzig.
Stay tuned for next week as we round up matchday 1 in the new Bundesliga campaign.
