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 Berlin1. FC Saarbrücken
VfB StuttgartHoffenheim
Bayern MunichKarlsruher SC
Schalke 04Bayer 04 Leverkusen
RB LeipzigWerder Bremen
SC VerlKaiserlautern
Borussia DortmundFortuna Düsseldorf
Hertha BSCEintracht 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.

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