1. FC Union has impressively demonstrated the new balance of power in Berlin football. With a 3-2 (1-0) win at Hertha BSC, the Irons made it back to the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup after two years and humiliated their local rivals, who had been left behind in sport, in their Olympic Stadium. Two months after the comfortable 2-0 win in the Bundesliga duel, the team of successful coach Urs Fischer was playfully and tactically superior again in the capital city derby on Wednesday evening. Hertha braced themselves against the defeat, but showed frightening defensive weaknesses.
Andreas Voglsammer (11th minute) with an artistic side kick, Niklas Stark with an own goal (50th) and Robin Knoche (55th) scored for the cup finalists from 2001, who even had good chances after their first away derby win in eleven years can count on a return to the Olympic Stadium for the final on May 21st. Suat Serdar scored twice for Hertha (54′, 90′ + 4′). Coach Tayfun Korkut has to continue the tough development work of an insecure team – on Sunday in the home game of the Bundesliga against FC Bayern Munich.
Freiburg shines in Sinsheim
Artistic shooter Vincenzo Grifo knocked TSG 1899 Hoffenheim out of the DFB Cup and made SC Freiburg dream of winning their first national title. The 28-year-old Italian scored two goals in the 4-1 (2-0) round of 16 on Wednesday evening (10th minute/36th/hand penalty) and thus decided the Baden-Württemberg duel in favor of the people of Breisgau early on. In front of only 500 allowed spectators, TSG only briefly hoped for an own goal by returnee Nico Schlotterbeck (53rd). Kevin Schade (55th) and Ermedin Demirovic (67th) scored the final score. A late second goal by Hoffenheim by Ihlas Bebou was disallowed for offside.