Round of 16 in the DFB Cup: defending champion Borussia Dortmund fails at FC St. Pauli

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Etienne Amenyido (centre) scores against his former club

Photo: Ulrich Hufnagel / imago images/Ulrich Hufnagel

The next top favorite is out of the DFB Cup: Borussia Dortmund let themselves be taken by surprise by FC St. Pauli and then countered.

While the defending champion is no longer in the quarter-finals, another club from the Ruhr area, VfL Bochum, can look forward to progressing - thanks to a significant improvement in performance in the second half against Mainz 05.

It took FC St. Pauli less than four minutes to take the lead against Borussia Dortmund: in just his second start for the Bundesliga 2 leaders, striker Etienne Amenyido, who was a member of the BVB youth team between 2011 and 2017, missed the ball a short distance past Gregor Kobel into the front.

The 1:0 at the Millerntor was the result of the fast, direct game from Hamburg, which, with a lot of commitment and good organization, gave the guests hardly any chances.

Marco Reus missed perhaps the best against St. Pauli keeper Dennis Smarsch (18th minute), BVB did not achieve much more top-class.

Dortmund only posed a threat before the break with their own goal when St. Pauli quickly countered: Axel Witsel deflected a cross from Guido Burgstaller into his own net in front of the lurking Amenyido (40').

A penalty is not enough for Dortmund

After the break, Kobel had to keep BVB's header against Burgstallers in play with a good reflex (54'), before a penalty made things exciting again: Jakov Medić got the ball on his outstretched arm in his own penalty area, Erling Haaland scored from the point to connect (58th).

But it stayed with this one: After FC Bayern Munich, who lost clearly in round two at Borussia Mönchengladbach, the next favorite to win the cup failed early on.

Of the remaining clubs, Gladbach are also the last to win the cup: in the 1994/1995 season.

After a half-time to get used to football between VfL Bochum and Mainz 05, it was Bochum who improved after the break and brought in a well-deserved home win.

Thomas Reis' team was still behind after 45 minutes, Karim Onisiwo benefited from the fact that VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann was only able to fend off a long-range shot (36').

A random goal was conceded by Bochum, who had been weak up to this point, followed by three of their own, which were anything but coincidental, but the logical consequence of a much more powerful second half: After a foul on Elvis Rexbhecaj, Miloš Pantović converted the penalty (56th), and shortly afterwards Pantović converted it a counterattack by lob (59th).

Substitute Eduard Löwen (80th) set the final point.

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