Kai Brünker threw his arms up, ran towards his teammates – and disappeared a short time later in the middle of the cheering crowd of players. After 1. FC Saarbrücken’s coup against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the celebration in Saarbrücken’s Ludwigsparkstadion knew no bounds. And the emotions also broke out afterwards for the 29-year-old striker, who became a cup hero with his late winning goal and shot the third division club into the semi-finals of the DFB Cup.
“I’m so proud of each and every one of them,” said the exhausted Brünker after the 2:1 (1:1) on Tuesday evening. “We knocked out Bayern, Frankfurt and Gladbach and are in the semi-finals, and I would say we also have one foot in Berlin. We only have one hurdle left to jump over. That’s insane.”
Brünker, who was nicknamed “Tank” by English fans during his time as a player for third division club Bradford City in the 2018/19 season because of his gigantic stature, shot the Saarland team into the semi-finals with his goal in the third minute of stoppage time.
The overjoyed goalscorer summarized the moment before the winning goal as follows: He mobilized the last of his strength on the way forward and always believed that Fabio Di Michele Sanchez’s pass would arrive. “At the moment of the shot I definitely knew that I had to concentrate again. I don’t know if we would have managed 120 minutes. The Gladbachers let the ball run and played great football despite the pitch conditions.”
Coach Rüdiger Ziehl was also impressed by the fact that Saarbrücken was able to pull off the decisive pinprick against disappointed Gladbachers in the end. “It’s a miracle, but also a bit of quality. Especially if you can strike like that again at the end,” emphasized Ziehl, who after a “very, very wild first half” was happy not to have gone into the break with a deficit against dominant Gladbachers.
“In the second half the announcement was to keep a clean sheet. We didn’t allow a clear chance to score, but we didn’t get any relief ourselves and had to suffer a lot in defense,” said the coach, who admitted that there was no chance of making it 2-1. “The fact that we drive the decisive counterattack with Fabio and also have three players join us in stoppage time is unbelievable. Kai was knocked out standing, how cleanly he then hit the ball is unbelievable.”
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After the final whistle, the almost 16,000 spectators turned the Ludwigsparkstadion into a veritable madhouse. Ziehl enthused: “Our indescribable journey continues.”
