3. Liga outfit Arminia Bielefeld caused the first upset of this year’s DFB-Pokal as they won 2-0 in their first-round clash against second-tier side Hannover 96, becoming the first side in this year’s competition to defeat a club from a higher division. Fellow third-division side Alemannia Aachen gave newly promoted Holstein Kiel a scare before falling to a narrow defeat. Elsewhere, Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund cruised past 1. FC Phönix Lübeck to book their spot in the second round.
Arminia flip the script on Hannover
Despite being the lower-ranked side on paper, Bielefeld outclassed H96 from the outset and scored a well-deserved opener after a quarter of an hour through André Becker (14’). Things went from bad to worse for Hannover nine minutes later, as former player Louis Oppie doubled Arminia’s advantage with a beautiful finish (23’).
The pre-match favourites started to look more threatening after two first-half substitutions from head coach Stefan Leitl, but Bielefeld kept things things tight at the back and barely gave their opponents a sniff as they pulled off the first upset of this season’s DFB-Pokal.
Aachen push Kiel to the brink
An even more exciting encounter played out between two newly promoted sides in Trivoli, as Holstein Kiel faced off against Alemannia Aachen. The Bundesliga outfit struck the first blow through Shuto Machino’s header (16’). Aachen were unfazed, however, and captain Mika Hanraths restored parity following a corner (28’). The underdogs looked like a more than worthy adversary for Kiel and even looked more likely to score a second before the interval.
Both sides picked up where they left off in the second half before Charlison Benschop headed Aachen in front after an hour of play (60’). Kiel looked determined to avoid the upset, but Benedikt Pichler (63’) and Fiete Arp (76’) squandered big chances. Lasse Rosenboom would end up being the hero for the visitors, as he scored a quickfire brace (82’, 90+1’) to extinguish Aachen’s dreams of reaching the second round.
Big names propel Dortmund to victory
Everything went according to plan for Borussia Dortmund in their clash against 1. FC Phönix Lübeck. Summer signings Pascal Groß and Waldemar Anton linked up to give BVB an early lead in front of more than 30,000 fans at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, as the former Stuttgart centre-back slotted the ball into an empty net from the midfielder’s corner (3’). Lübeck struggled to contain Dortmund’s pacey attackers, which led to the second goal of the match. The referee awarded a penalty to BVB after Karim Adeyemi was fouled in the box, which Emre Can duly converted (31’). Dortmund scored a third shortly before the break through Julian Brandt (45+1’).
Phönix refused to go down without a fight, however, and got a goal back following a mazy run and delightful finish from defender Obinna Iloka (55’). The Regionalliga outfit went close to reducing the deficit further, as Emanuel Adou hit the bar five minutes later (60’). Julien Duranville’s goal shortly afterwards sealed the victory for Dortmund (62’).
