Football DFB Cup
Wolfsburg throws out defending champions, regional league team is in the round of 16
Status: 31.10.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Factory vs test club – there had to be a winner. It was VfL Wolfsburg
What: REUTERS
The defending champion is out. RasenBallsport Leipzig loses at VfL Wolfsburg and is eliminated from the DFB Cup in the second round. A regional league club beats Greuther Fürth and causes a big surprise.
Defending champions RB Leipzig were eliminated from the DFB Cup in the second round. The cup winners of the last two years lost 0-1 (0-1) at VfL Wolfsburg and thus experienced the first big disappointment of the current season.
In front of just 16,031 spectators in Wolfsburg’s Volkswagen Arena, Vaclav Cerny scored the winning goal for Lower Saxony (14th minute). Leipzig played outnumbered from the 55th minute onwards because Yussuf Poulsen had seen a yellow-red card. In the sixth cup duel between the two clubs, it was only Wolfsburg’s second victory.
Leipzig’s Yussuf Poulsen had to leave the field with a yellow-red card in the second half
Source: dpa/Swen Pförtner
Kocac had changed his team in eight positions compared to the disappointing 2:3 in the Bundesliga at FC Augsburg. Among other things, striker Jonas Wind and captain Maximilian Arnold initially only sat on the bench. Wind has been struggling with Achilles tendon problems for a long time. “Jonas is still in good form, but we have to be careful. We have to treat him like a raw egg,” Kovac said about the Danish international before the game.
But even without the wind, which has already scored eight times in the Bundesliga and once in the cup this season, Wolfsburg were the more dangerous team in the first half. Cerny, who came from FC Twente Enschede in the summer, gave the home team the lead in the 14th minute with a powerful shot into the corner after a fine pass from Tiago Tomas.
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After the break, the guests weakened themselves. Poulsen was shown yellow-red after a completely unnecessary foul on the halfway line, so that the Champions League participants had to operate outnumbered for more than half an hour. But the Wolfsburg team failed to capitalize on it. Due to many easy ball losses, most of the counterattack opportunities fizzled out early on.
FC Homburg – Greuther Fürth 2:1
FC 08 Homburg managed the next surprise in the DFB Cup and, after Bundesliga team SV Darmstadt 98, also defeated second division team Greuther Fürth. The Saarlanders won 2-1 (1-0) and are now in the round of 16, which will be played on December 5th and 6th. Homburg will then enjoy home rights again as an amateur club and will be able to compete against a professional representative again.
FC Homburg celebrates the big surprise
Source: dpa/Jörg Halisch
Fabian Eisele (31st minute) and Joker Phil Harres (83rd) scored the goals for the regional league team. The winning goal came from a simple counterattack that Homburg played precisely and dynamically. The guests from Franconia had meanwhile equalized through Branimir Hrgota (52nd), but overall there was not enough. Midfielder Julian Green almost took Fürth’s lead shortly after the equalizer, but was denied by the strong goalkeeper Tom Kretzschmar.
St. Pauli – FC Schalke 04 2:1 nV
FC St. Pauli reached the round of 16 with a win against FC Schalke 04. In the duel between the second division teams, Hamburg once again showed their comeback qualities and won 2-1 (1-1, 0-1) after extra time after being behind. Marcel Hartel (57th minute/hand penalty) and Johannes Eggestein (102nd) scored for St. Pauli. Marcin Kaminski (16th) was successful for Schalke.
