For Bundesliga club SV Darmstadt 98, the first big embarrassment of the still young football season is perfect. In the first round of the DFB Cup, the southern Hessians lost 0:3 (0:1) at FC 08 Homburg from the Regionalliga Südwest and were eliminated as the fourth first division team after Werder Bremen, VfL Bochum and FC Augsburg. The Homburg are now the only fourth division team in the second round of the cup.
The other first division clubs were unscathed on Monday evening. 1. FC Köln won 3-1 (1-1, 1-0) after extra time at second division VfL Osnabrück, TSG Hoffenheim won 4-1 (1-1) at third division VfB Lübeck. Second division club Magdeburg narrowly beat third division club Jahn Regensburg 2-1 (1-0).
“This is the first time in two years that I have to apologize to the fans for a game played by my team,” commented Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht on the 0:3. “We will work through that and hopefully draw the right lessons from it.” Captain Fabian Holland said: “That was a slap in the face.”
In the Homburg Waldstadion, Markus Mendler (10th minute), Michael Heilig (49th) and Phil Harres (81st) scored in front of 6150 spectators for the local Saarlanders, who earned a further 430,000 euros from the premium pot of the German Football Association may count. In the 89th minute, Darmstadt’s Filip Stojilkovic also failed with a penalty kick on Homburg’s goalkeeper Tom Kretzschmar.
1. FC Köln did better, but had to go into extra time in the 3-1 (1-1, 1-0) win in Osnabrück. After a dream goal from FC defender Benno Schmitz (43rd minute), Charalambos Makridis (73rd) made it 1-1 after a missed penalty kick. In front of 15,741 spectators in the sold-out stadium on Bremer Brücke, Sargis Adamyan (93rd) and Julian Chabot (96th) finally shot the Cologne team one lap further.
Hoffenheim were initially trailing behind at the Stadion an der Lübecker Lohmühle after Tarik Gözüsirin converted a penalty for VfB in the 35th minute. This was preceded by a foul by Hoffenheim’s Kevin Vogt on Robin Velasco. Two goals from striker Andrej Kramaric (42′, 60’/penalty) turned the game around for coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team. The newcomers Marius Bülter (70th) and Julian Justvan (75th) increased.
Center forward Luca Schuler (16th) and Jean Hugonet (60th) ensured Magdeburg’s away win at second division relegated Jahn Regensburg. Dominik Kother, who was signed by Karlsruher SC, was only able to reduce the deficit to 1:2 (63 ‘) for the Regensburg team, who were also inferior in terms of play. The FCM is thus in the second round of the DFB Cup for the first time since 2017.
