The second round's coaches: Cup expert Ancelotti

Coppa Italia, FA Cup, Copa Del Rey - Bayern head coach Carlo Ancelotti has won domestic cup competitions in Italy, England and Spain and is now aiming for the title in Germany. Successes, debuts, experience – DFB.de carefully examines the coaches of the DFB Cup second round.

Record cup winners Bayern can go into the derby against FC Augsburg feeling pretty relaxed when they look at Ancelotti’s record in cup competitions. The Italian looks like the perfect man to be the driving force behind the team’s title defence. With seven cup wins on his résumé, the Bayern coach knows exactly how he needs to prepare his team for a cup match.

Indeed his last title came not all that long ago. Ancelotti celebrated as the man in charge of Real Madrid’s Copa Del Rey win in 2014, while he lifted the FA Cup with Chelsea in 2010. His most frequent cup triumphs came in the Coppa Italia, the tournament in his native Italy. After Ancelotti won the cup four times as a player with AS Roma (1908, 1981, 1984 and 1986), he also lifted the title as AC Milan coach in 2003.

Peter Stöger and Roger Schmidt: Success in Austria

His opposite number Dirk Schuster on the other hand stands out for his experience in German cup competitions. The away match at FC Bayern is already his 34th cup game, most matches of which he experienced with Karlsruher SC. The 48-year-old was part of the KSC team that managed to get to the final against 1.FC Kaiserslautern in 1996, although they came up short losing the match 1-0.

Two other coaches have both experience in the DFB Cup as well as in foreign cup competitions. FC Köln head coach Peter Stöger won five titles (three as a player and two as a coach) with FK Austria Wien, while Leverkusen’s Roger Schmidt won the ÖFB Cup in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg in 2014.

Experience has a name: Friedhelm Funkel

Friedhelm Funkel also has a cup title to his name. In fact he is generally best-associated with the DFB Cup. Out of the all the head coaches of teams in the 2nd round, the current Düsseldorf head coach has the most experience and has been involved in the highest number of cup games (57). Furthermore Funkel has seen both the most goals scored and conceded by his teams, standing at 100 and 73 respectively. Having been defeated in the final once before, he was able to lift the trophy with Uerdingen in 1985.

There is another old coach among the 32 managers of teams that have qualified for the second round. FC St. Pauli manager Ewald Lienen is 62 years old, born just twelve days earlier than Funkel.

DFB Cup debut for Hannes Wolf

You will find the complete opposite at TSG Hoffenheim. Julian Nagelsmann is only 29 years old and is therefore the youngest manager of the second round. Hannes Wolf, the only debutant in this year’s DFB Cup is only just older. The VfB Stuttgart manager is 35 years old and they face Champions League side Borussia Mönchengladbach at home on 25th October at 20:45 CEST.

It will also be the first time that Hamburger SV manager Markus Gisdol takes charge of a DFB Cup match. The new HSV manager faces third division side Hallescher FC on 25th October at 20.45 CEST.