Enlarge image

The duel between Mönchengladbach and Saarbrücken developed into a battle of attrition

Photo: eu-images / IMAGO

1. FC Saarbrücken surprisingly won the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

The third division team won 2:1 (1:1) in the last minute.

Robin Hack gave Gladbach the lead (8th minute), which Amine Naïfi equalized again (11th).

Kai Brünker made the decision in the third minute of stoppage time.

Saarbrücken is continuing a cup season full of sensations.

The club had knocked Karlsruher SC, FC Bayern and Eintracht Frankfurt out of the cup and will now face 1. FC Kaiserslautern on April 2nd (8:45 p.m.).

Bayer Leverkusen and Fortuna Düsseldorf will face each other in the second semi-final on April 3rd (8:45 p.m.).

At the beginning of February the game had to be canceled at short notice because constant rain had made the pitch unplayable.

The pitch, which caused the game against Dynamo Dresden to be canceled due to weather in the autumn, was then replaced.

But the conditions remained difficult: it was raining and the grass was cracking in some places.

Nevertheless, a lively game initially developed, Saarbrücken started bravely and defended offensively.

Because the hosts kept losing the ball, the Gladbach team had moments of transition - and Hack took advantage of this to make it 0-1 early (8th).

Saarbrücken was unimpressed and equalized just three minutes later with a powerful long-range shot from Naïfi (11th).

The longer the game lasted, the more Saarbrücken withdrew.

Gladbach controlled the game, only missing the lead again through Florian Neuhaus (18th), Franck Honorat (18th), Hack (21st) and again Honorat (28th) and then looked in vain for ideas on the offensive.

Battle of attrition in the constant rain

The pitch got worse and worse, the ball often got left in puddles or bounced.

Except for a lob from Hack (60th), Gladbach remained too unsatisfactory to create chances from their high possession.

Saarbrücken defended every high ball, but didn't set any offensive accents.

It wasn't until stoppage time that they even got back into the penalty area, initially through two set pieces.

In the third minute of injury time, Brünker completed a counterattack perfectly (90th + 3rd).

branch