It has not been the best of times recently for St. Pauli. Their form has seen them fall to bottom of the 2. Bundesliga table and they have just one league win to their name all season. With that in mind, it could be said that this is not the ideal time for them to face Bundesliga high-flyers Hertha BSC. The two will meet at 20:45 CEST on Tuesday 25th October in the DFB Cup second round at the Millerntor. The Berliners currently sit third in the league behind RB Leipzig and first-placed Bayern after an impressive start to the campaign.
Still, the nature of the knockout competition means that the team at the foot of the second division still have the possibility of progressing to the next round. “We are the underdogs. We want to put in a good fight in front of our home crowd. Perhaps we can swing the game in our favour and use that as something to build on for the games ahead of us,” said St. Pauli’s Christopher Buchtmann. He added that “in the cup, a surprise is always possible. There is always a special sort of anticipation before the game gets going. In the cup there is always a chance if you fight and play with passion, even though there is no hope at other times.”
With all that in mind, St. Pauli face an especially difficult obstacle here in their bid to turn their form around. Hertha’s only loss so far this season has come at the hand of champions FC Bayern, and their effective brand of football has put them just three points from the summit of the Bundesliga table after eight games. Their last game was a 2-1 win over FC Köln and they will be approaching the game with momentum on their side and a lot of confidence. As extra motivation, the cup final’s venue is also Hertha’s home ground: the thought of a final on home turf in Berlin’s Olympiastadion will be a tempting prospect for the capital club. So far the only city natives to have managed this were Berlin Amateure in 1993, who lost out to Bayer Leverkusen.
It has not been the best of times recently for St. Pauli. Their form has seen them fall to bottom of the 2. Bundesliga table and they have just one league win to their name all season. With that in mind, it could be said that this is not the ideal time for them to face Bundesliga high-flyers Hertha BSC. The two will meet at 20:45 CEST on Tuesday 25th October in the DFB Cup second round at the Millerntor. The Berliners currently sit third in the league behind RB Leipzig and first-placed Bayern after an impressive start to the campaign.
Still, the nature of the knockout competition means that the team at the foot of the second division still have the possibility of progressing to the next round. “We are the underdogs. We want to put in a good fight in front of our home crowd. Perhaps we can swing the game in our favour and use that as something to build on for the games ahead of us,” said St. Pauli’s Christopher Buchtmann. He added that “in the cup, a surprise is always possible. There is always a special sort of anticipation before the game gets going. In the cup there is always a chance if you fight and play with passion, even though there is no hope at other times.”
With all that in mind, St. Pauli face an especially difficult obstacle here in their bid to turn their form around. Hertha’s only loss so far this season has come at the hand of champions FC Bayern, and their effective brand of football has put them just three points from the summit of the Bundesliga table after eight games. Their last game was a 2-1 win over FC Köln and they will be approaching the game with momentum on their side and a lot of confidence. As extra motivation, the cup final’s venue is also Hertha’s home ground: the thought of a final on home turf in Berlin’s Olympiastadion will be a tempting prospect for the capital club. So far the only city natives to have managed this were Berlin Amateure in 1993, who lost out to Bayer Leverkusen.
