Borussia Mönchengladbach mastered the debut of coach Adi Hütter with a lot of effort and the traditional club 1. FC Kaiserslautern screwed up the hoped-for football festival.
The Bundesliga team won the top game of the first DFB Cup main round 1-0 (1-0) on Monday evening and fulfilled its duty thanks to a goal from captain Lars Stindl (11th minute).
The 5000 spectators in the World Cup stadium got a varied spectacle with many opportunities even without a surprise coup.
Even if there are only four days between the cup duty and the Bundesliga opener against record champions Bayern on Friday evening, Hütter did not spare any regular employees in his first competitive game.
The last ailing Marcus Thuram and full-back Ramy Bensebaini were absent, while Jonas Hofmann and Alassane Plea, who had been injured for a long time, were on the bench as wild cards.
Otherwise everyone was on board.
Although only a quarter of the originally planned 20,000 fans were allowed to enter the Fritz-Walter-Stadion, the atmosphere was great when the whistle kicked off.
And the Lautern supporters, not exactly spoiled for success in recent years, saw their team in forward gear: René Klingenburg narrowly missed with a shot after almost 30 seconds, a straightforward combination via Kenny Redondo (5th) was only able to defuse Gladbach's goalkeeper Yann Sommer.
But the Europe contender would not be the Europe contender if he could not use his great class effectively.
An attack initiated by goal scorer Stindl himself brought the lead, the captain headed a cross from winger Patrick Herrmann as a well-placed touch-up.
At first it was noticeably quieter among the FCK fans.
It was all the more heated in the square when Klingenberg and Stindl clashed.
The short but fierce duel resulted in a pack of around 15 people.
Referee Harm Osmers acted cautiously and showed both players yellow.
In terms of sport, a lively cup fight also developed, in which the hosts had the best chances and failed again and again due to the strong summer. Herrmann and Stefan Lainer could have raised early on for the well-demanded Borussia. Even after the change, both teams played courageously forward, but Gladbach was now increasingly taking control. But because in addition to summer, FCK keeper Matheo Raab had a great day, the favorite ended up with a narrow 1-0 victory.