bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen meet VfB Stuttgart in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup. This was the result of the draw on Sunday in the German Football Museum in Dortmund. Cup terror 1. FC Saarbrücken, which had already eliminated record winners Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt, is the only third division club remaining in the competition to face Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Hertha BSC and 1. FC Kaiserslautern as well as FC St. Pauli and Fortuna Düsseldorf also meet. U-17 world champion coach Christian Wück was the draw manager, and the tickets were drawn by his assistant Jens Nowotny.
“The hardest draw that was possible”
“We are very happy to have a home game again. It is clear that we have certainly drawn the strongest opponent in VfB Stuttgart. But if you want to win the DFB Cup, you have to beat everyone,” said Leverkusen's sports director Simon Rolfes. “We are self-confident enough and have the quality to reach the semi-finals.”
His counterpart, VfB sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth, said: “This is without question the hardest draw that was possible. Leverkusen has a top team, we saw that today. The fact that we have to compete away makes the task even more difficult,” said Wohlgemuth. And further: “Nevertheless, we are of course competing with the aim of making it to the semi-finals. The first half of our game today in particular showed that we can do that.”
The quarter-finals will be played on January 30th and 31st and February 6th and 7th. The semi-finals are scheduled for April 2nd and 3rd, the final will take place on May 25th in Berlin. For the first time in 20 years, only three Bundesliga clubs made it to the quarter-finals of the competition. In addition to Bayern, defending champions RB Leipzig also said goodbye early.
Leverkusen and Stuttgart also faced each other in the Bundesliga on Sunday. VfB fought to a 1-1 draw against the still unbeaten Rhinelanders.
In the quarter-finals of the Women's Cup there will be a top game with the game between TSG Hoffenheim and defending champions VfL Wolfsburg. The following other games were drawn: The winner of the Kickers Offenbach/FC Bayern Munich game meets Carl Zeiss Jena, Bayer Leverkusen plays against SGS Essen and the winner of the Eintracht Frankfurt/SC Freiburg game receives MSV Duisburg.
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