Monday 2 December 2013

DFB Cup (German FA Cup): Round of 16: Will the top three advance?

The third round or Group of sixteen (Achtelfinale) of the German FA Federation kicks off on Tuesday, with Bayern Muenchen, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen competing for a slot in the quarter final.  The cup competition is often filled with surprises, where the underdog is capable of defeating some of the top Bundesliga clubs. Will the Bundesliga summit trio survive?

Tuesday Borussia Dortmund travels to Saarbrucken, the only third division club still remaining in the competition.  Three matches feature Bundesliga clubs, SC Freiburg vs Bayer Leverkusen, FC Bayern vs FC Augsburg and Schalke 04 takes on Hoffenheim.  In three matches top flight clubs host 2nd Bundesliga clubs, Hamburger SV hosts 1.FC Koeln, VFL Wolfsburg hosts FC Ingolstadt and Eintracht Frankfurt hosts SV Sandhausen.

When Saarbruecken meets Dortmund on Tuesday, all eyes will be on Saarbruecken to see if the third division club can upset the third placed club in the Bundesliga. The game will be broadcast in Canada on SNET World at 2:30 pm EST.

Bayern Munich travels to their local rival FC Augsburg. Augsburg, which currently in tenth spot in the Bundesliga and is always a hot number.  Thomas Mueller, during an interview says that Bayern is aware that the DFB Pokal is a knock out competition and that there is no room for errors.  Augsburg has a great fighting spirit and is always a difficult task, even for Bayern.

Leverkusen won its match on Saturday, after receiving a beating from Manchester United midweek.  SC Freiburg has been struggling in the league, but can provide a challenge on home ground.  The question is whether or not Leverkusen can now show consistency, which was missing against Manchester United.  Freiburg can always threaten with quick counters.  Leverkusen's defence needs to be tight, while the Leverkusen attack needs to capitalize.

Whether the top trio will advance to the quarter-final remains to be seen.  On paper their chances look pretty good, but this has never been the determining factor in cup competition.

3 December

1. FC Union Berlin vs 1. FC Kaiserslautern      0-3         
Hamburger SV vs 1. FC Köln                            2-1
Schalke 04 vs 1899 Hoffenheim                         1-3
1. FC Saarbrücken vs Borussia Dortmund        0-2

4 December
               
SC Freiburg vs Bayer Leverkusen               
VfL Wolfsburg vs FC Ingolstadt               
Eintracht Frankfurt vs SV Sandhausen           
FC Augsburg vs Bayern München

No comments:

Post a Comment