Holders Leipzig knocked out of German Cup on night of shocks

Published November 2, 2023
WOLFSBURG: VfL Wolfsburg’s Sebastiaan Bornauw (L) vies for the ball with Xavi Simons of RB Leipzig during their German Cup match.—AFP
WOLFSBURG: VfL Wolfsburg’s Sebastiaan Bornauw (L) vies for the ball with Xavi Simons of RB Leipzig during their German Cup match.—AFP

BERLIN: VfL Wolfsburg produced the first shock of this season’s German Cup, knocking out holders RB Leipzig with an inspired 1-0 win as fourth-tier Homburg upset Greuther Fuerth and Kaiserslautern sank Cologne.

Wolfsburg, coached by Niko Kovac, who guided Eintracht Frankfurt to glory in this competition in 2018, took an early lead through Vaclav Cerny — and Leipzig never recovered.

The Red Bull outfit have a rich recent pedigree in the competition, reaching the previous three finals, losing in 2021 to Borussia Dortmund first but winning the last two against Freiburg and Frankfurt.

However, Wolfsburg have not made it beyond the quarter-finals since lifting the trophy in 2015.

But on home turf, Kovac’s side put their Bundesliga troubles behind them and pulled off their biggest victory of the season.

Despite going into this game having lost four of their last five league games, Wolfsburg flew out of the blocks.

Summer signing Cerny latched onto a perfectly-weighted pass by Tiago Tomas and unleashed an unstoppable left-footed drive into the roof of the net for his first goal of the season.

Leipzig struggled to find their rhythm and when Yussuf Poulsen saw red nine minutes into the second half for a clumsy second yellow, the reigning champions’ chances disappeared.

In another surprise result, Greuther Fuerth of Germany’s second division were beaten 2-1 at home by fourth tier Homburg with Phil Harres scoring a late winner.

Bundesliga strugglers Cologne were sent packing by second-tier Kaiserslautern, whose slick performance put them 3-0 up after 65 minutes and seemingly out of sight.

Cologne clawed it back to 3-2 but it was too little too late, ending the game with nine men after Eric Martel and captain Florian Kainz were sent off within the space of five second half minutes.

Cologne have now won only one of their last 10 games.

In an extraordinary game between third division Unterhaching and second-tier Fortuna Duesseldorf, the underdogs were pegged back to 3-3 after being 2-0 up, with Duesseldorf eventually prevailing 6-3 after extra time.

Hamburg were 13 minutes from going out to third-tier Arminia Bielefeld but levelled the game at 1-1, with the second division club eventually clinching victory 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out.

Earlier, Stuttgart’s fine start to the Bundesliga season transferred to the Cup, winning 1-0 against beleaguered Union Berlin.

Union qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history last season, but their domestic form this term has been poor.

The only goal of the game came in first half stoppage time courtesy of Deniz Undav.

Borussia Moenchengladbach, three-time German Cup winners, beat Heidenheim 3-1 to reach the last 16, while Johannes Eggestein scored a 102nd minute winner for St. Pauli, who needed extra time to beat Schalke 2-1.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2023

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....