Hertha BSC will once again face Eintracht Braunschweig in the first round of the DFB Cup. As in 2018 and 2020, the Berliners are traveling to the second division promoted from Lower Saxony. Four years ago Hertha won 2-1, but in 2020 the Berliners were eliminated 4-5 after a goal festival. For 1. FC Union Berlin it goes to the winner of the Saxony Cup, the regional league team Chemnitzer FC.
“From our point of view, this is a curious lot. Because it’s slowly becoming a tradition to travel to Braunschweig every two years for the first round,” Hertha Managing Director Sport Fredi Bobic said on Sunday on Hertha’s website. It will be an interesting game at an ambitious and traditional club.
DFB Vice-President Peter Frymuth and former cup winner Kevin Großkreutz drew the draw for the matches on Sunday in the ARD program “Sportschau” from the German Football Museum in Dortmund.
Record winner FC Bayern Munich has to compete in the first round with third division soccer team Viktoria Köln. Cup defender RB Leipzig is a guest at the start of the new cup season at the regional league club Teutonia Ottensen, the Hamburg state winner. Former world champion Kevin Großkreutz drew an attractive pairing for his ex-club Borussia Dortmund, who have to play for third division team 1860 Munich.
The duel between second division promoted team 1. FC Kaiserslautern and European Cup participant SC Freiburg also promises to be exciting. Europa League winner Eintracht Frankfurt will face third division champions 1. FC Magdeburg.
The first round of the cup will be played from July 29th to August 1st. Because the Supercup between FC Bayern and Leipzig is also scheduled for July 30, the two top teams will only play their cup games at the end of August.
In addition to the 36 professional clubs from the national leagues, the four top teams from the third division last season also qualify for the DFB Cup. There are also the 21 state cup winners and one team each from Bavaria, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. These are the regional associations of the German Football Association with the most members.
