DFB Cup
The miracle continues: Berlin is very close to Saarbrücken
Sensation for the Saarbrücken team: Marcel Gaus (l), Manuel Zeitz (2nd from left), Bjarne Thoelke (2nd from right) and Lukas Boeder (r) celebrate their victory. photo
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
After Karlsruher SC, Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt, Saarbrücken knocks Borussia Mönchengladbach out of the DFB Cup. Berlin is close. Desolate weeks await the Gladbachers.
After the next exciting cup night, the football heroes from the surprise team 1. FC Saarbrücken are already looking towards Berlin. “If you’re in the semi-finals, then of course you want to take one more step and play for the DFB Cup in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in May,” said Saarbrücken’s sports director Jürgen Luginger told “RevierSport” on Wednesday.
The players and managers of the Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, who had been duped in the constant rain the day before, stood next to the celebrating Saarbrücken team and looked for answers after the 1-2 embarrassment at the third division team. “This disappoints me extremely,” said Borussia’s sports director Roland Virkus. The 57-year-old didn’t look for excuses: “Of course we have a lot of young people in this team, but at some point it’s a question of quality.”
Gladbach in the no man’s land of the table
On this remarkable evening, Gladbach carelessly missed the opportunity to reach the DFB Cup final more easily than ever before. The semi-final opponent would have been the relegation-threatened second division team 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Instead of the chance of a title, the season is now basically over for Borussia.
In the Bundesliga, the five-time German champions are in no man’s land in the table. Coach Gerardo Seoane’s team will almost certainly have nothing to do with either the European Cup or relegation. “We’re all disappointed. It’s not the first disappointment this year, but it hurts a little more because you’re saying goodbye to a competition entirely,” said Seoane.
While Seoane and his team had desolate weeks ahead, his Saarbrücken colleague Rüdiger Ziehl had a short night. “Everyone deserves to celebrate a little bit,” he reported in the ZDF lunchtime magazine. “It’s not an everyday occurrence, what we achieved again yesterday.” After the game and the party, he still asked for regeneration training at 3 p.m. The league team Everyday life continues on Saturday, “where we want to win again.”
Victory with tears in his eyes
Immediately after the miracle the evening before, he was already looking forward to the semi-final derby against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. “It’s going to be really awesome, playing here at home against Lautern in the DFB Cup semi-final. It’s indescribable, there are no words,” he said.
Like his exhausted players, there were tears in the 46-year-old’s eyes. Once again, the third division team outgrew itself and decided the game in stoppage time through Kai Brünker (90th + 3).
Ziehl no longer expected this on the deep grass and was already prepared for an extension. “Because it was so difficult to get forward again. It was a pure effort of will, they were all knocked out standing up. The pitch looked bad from the outside, if you go down after the game it’s a catastrophe,” he said.
Brünker: “It’s awesome that the journey continues”
Brünker praised the “mentality monsters” in the team. “Now we’re aiming for Berlin, we want to go there. It’s awesome that the journey continues,” said the winning goalscorer. Now it’s all about the final ticket in the derby on April 2nd (8.45 p.m./live on ARD).
Ziehl knows that expectations after the cup coup in Saarbrücken are skyrocketing. The realist therefore tries to dampen this down somewhat. Even though there is only one goal left for the cup wonder team after the victories against Karlsruher SC, FC Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt and now against Gladbach: the final.