The first two games from this season’s DFB Pokal Quarter-Finals saw Fortuna Düsseldorf and Kaiserslautern go through in the two all 2. Bundesliga affairs.
St. Pauli 2-2 Fortuna Düsseldorf (AET – Fortuna win 4-3 on penalties)
The first game on Tuesday saw a repeat of a 2. Bundesliga match from the weekend. This time, St. Pauli were hosting a Fortuna side they had just beaten 2-1. The managers seemed to view the closeness between the league and cup games in different ways, whilst Düsseldorf made minimal changes, St. Pauli made a few notable ones. Most important were the three changes to the starting eleven: Lars Ritzka started at left-wing-back, moving Philipp Treu to the right, Etienne Amenyido replaced Elias Saad, and cup keeper Sascha Burchert replaced Nikola Vasilj. None of these moves worked, Ritzka had a bad game and was replaced by Manolis Saliakis at half-time (with Treu moving back to the left), Saad came on for Amenyido at the same moment as well, and most importantly, Sascha Burchert had another nightmare. After giving away one of the clumsiest goals of the season in last round’s win against Homburg, Burchert would be at it again. Both of Düsseldorf’s goals came from errors, first giving away a penalty which was scored by Vincent Vermeij, and then spilling a simple shot into the path of Ao Tanaka in first-half extra time.
Whilst Burchert was making mistakes, St. Pauli were still the better side and did keep creating chances. They got a penalty of their own whilst 1-0 down when Tanaka brought down Treu, like at the weekend Marcel Hartel would step up and score from the spot. Then after going 2-1 down in extra-time, St. Pauli would rally and score an unlikely equaliser in the 121st minute through the unlikely source of Carlo Boukhalfa.
That meant penalties, and here it looked like Sascha Burchert had redeemed himself, saving Christoph Daferner’s shot which saw St. Pauli take a 3-1 lead in the shootout. Then Maurides stepped up. Since joining in January of last year, he hasn’t scored for Kiezkicker, and that remained the case as his shot was poor and saved. With the score at 3-3, Marcel Hartel stepped up for St. Pauli’s final kick. Hartel had scored a penalty in the league game, he scored a penalty earlier on in the cup game. He picked the worst possible time to hit a weak shot that Florian Kastenmeier could easily save. However, he had a lifeline, Kastenmeier had both feet off the line and the penalty had to be retaken. He missed again. For all of his great performances this year, and for how clinical he had been from the spot, this felt like a sick joke at St. Pauli’s expense. Christos Tzolis would score his penalty, and Düsseldorf would advance to the Semi-Final.
At the end of the day, it was the right result, the team that makes the fewest mistakes often wins the game and that was Fortuna. For his qualities as a Head Coach, Fabian Hürzeler’s decisions do have to be questioned here, especially with regards to the starting lineup. This game was most certainly winnable, but St. Pauli got in their own way.
Hertha Berlin 1-3 Kaiserslautern
The Grammozis Express continues to pick up steam as Kaiserslautern won their second game in a row. They made a dream start by opening the scoring in the 5th minute, Jan Elvedi slotting into the bottom corner and by half-time, it was 2-0 thanks to a strong finish from Richmond Tachie. It was game over when they added a third in the 69th minute, Filip Kaloc scoring his first goal for the club since joining from Banik Ostrava during this transfer window. Fabian Reese, who was so good in the last round, did get a consolation for Hertha in the 91st minute, but there was never any threat of the side from the capital winning.
75,000 spectators were in the Olympiastadion and knowing they were just two steps away from the final might have been too much pressure for Hertha. Coach Pál Dárdai suggested as much after the game – “Maybe we dreamed too much and talked and read too much about the chance [of playing in the final].” The goal early on clearly affected the confidence of Hertha’s players and they never truly recovered, they couldn’t break down what has been a poor Kaiserslautern defence and had few periods where they controlled the game. This week has been great for the Red Devils though, after looking like they were in crisis just last Friday, their last two wins could be exactly what they need to start heading in the right direction in the league. At the very least, they’re heading in a surprising direction in the cup.
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