Tag: German Cup

Bayern Munich powerbroker Uli Hoeness called Harry Kane the “best transfer we’ve ever made” after the England captain’s hat-trick handed them a 3-0 victory over Stuttgart to win the German Cup final in Berlin on Saturday.

The hat-trick brought Kane’s goal tally to a stunning 61 in all competitions this season, while ending a six-year drought in the competition for the Bavarian giants.

Victory sealed a 14th league and cup double for Bayern and 21st cup success.

Hoeness is a former Bayern striker and long-time president who helped grow them into a European behemoth.

“Harry Kane is the best transfer we’ve ever made,” Hoeness told German TV, while confirming that the England captain would be at the club next season, despite reported interest from Barcelona.

“Bayern are a buying club not a selling club,” he added. “And Barcelona have no money anyway.”

Kane was beeming after Hoeness’s praise.

“To hear those kinds of words, at a club like this, we know how many great players have played here, it’s special,” he said.

“Going into this final, I felt like it was my responsibility as much as anyone to get us over the line.

“I know I’m going to get chances and I did again today. To score a hat-trick in a final is such a special feeling. It’s just memories I’ll remember forever.”

The England captain’s first strike was set up by Michael Olise from the right, who now boasts an incredible 30 assists in all competitions this season.

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Left winger Luis Diaz helped create the second and Kane added a penalty in stoppage time to complete a second-half hat-trick.

The double once again highlighted Bayern’s insatiable dominance of German football.

No other German club has achieved the double more than once.

This was the third time that Stuttgart were forced to watch on as Bayern celebrated this season.

Bayern beat Stuttgart in the season-opening Super Cup and also secured the Bundesliga title with a big win over the Swabians in Munich in April.

“We played an outstanding season and we can be proud of ourselves. There are worse things than losing to Bayern,” Stuttgart forward Deniz Undav said to Sky.

Stuttgart sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth told reporters: “In the end, it was Harry Kane three times — so business as usual.”

Coming into Saturday’s match, Bayern had already beaten their opponents three times this season with a combined goal tally of 11-3.

Yet Stuttgart edged the first half, frequently troubling Bayern on the counter.

Stuttgart’s Maximilian Mittelstaedt and Chris Fuehrich, both left out of Germany’s World Cup squad, were particularly impressive going forwards.

Kane’s only chance of the opening half came in the 21st minute when he headed a cross well over the bar.

Early in the second-half, Bayern made Stuttgart pay for their failure to convert their first-half chances when Olise set up Kane’s opener.

The France winger tore down the right and delivered a low-flying cross perfectly to Kane, who leapt forward and headed in from close range, making sure he had scored in each of Bayern’s six games in the competition this season.

Moments later, Bayern scuffed a golden chance to go two up when Konrad Laimer blasted a rebound well over the bar with Stuttgart’s Alexander Nuebel on the ground and the goal unguarded.

With 10 minutes remaining, Kane made sure of things, collecting a Diaz pass on the spin and blasting a low shot into the bottom corner.

Stuttgart’s Angelo Stiller handled in the box in stoppage time, bringing Kane to the spot. The striker converted nervelessly to complete an incredible season at the club.

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Harry Kane and Luis Diaz scored as Bayern Munich won 2-0 at Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday to reach the German Cup final for the first time since 2020.

Just three days after Bayern sealed back-to-back Bundesliga titles with a home win over Stuttgart, Kane and Diaz got the goals to keep hopes of a treble alive.

Bayern’s comfortable victory avenged their defeat by Leverkusen in the round of 16 last season. They will face either holders Stuttgart or Freiburg in the final.

The Bavarian giants have won a record 20 German Cups but had not reached the showpiece in Berlin for six years, their longest drought since the turn of the century.

“We’re going to Berlin. I’m looking forward to it. It was a goal of ours to get to Berlin, to reach the final, experience that, the guys said it’s an incredible experience, so we’ve done nearly all the work,” said Kane.

“We’ve had a lot of away games, tough games, we’ve had to grind it out. Now we’ve got one more to go. In a final, anything is possible. We’re feeling good.”

Leverkusen, the 2024 cup winners, were appearing in a third successive semi-final but struggled under the bright lights as Bayern pinned them back.

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Diaz and Kane forced good saves from Leverkusen goalkeeper Mark Flekken inside the opening 20 minutes, but the England captain eventually broke through.

Jamal Musiala threaded a pass through from the right, which was intended for Diaz, but Kane was on hand to smash in when the ball evaded the Colombian completely.

Leverkusen improved after the break. Nathan Tella, who scored the only goal when Leverkusen eliminated Bayern last season, forced a spectacular save from Manuel Neuer early in the second half.

Tella thumped a low shot that required Neuer to fully extend himself to swat the ball away.

In the final half hour, Bayern had the better chances to score with Josip Stanisic, Kane and Diaz all going close to putting the match to bed.

The hosts won a corner in the final minute of normal time, but Bayern launched an immediate counter-attack, with Flekken once more blocking a Diaz shot.

Diaz added gloss to the victory in the third minute of stoppage time, turning in a Leon Goretzka pass. Originally flagged for offside, the decision was overturned after a VAR review, sending the Bayern players streaming from the bench.

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Bayer Leverkusen knocked Borussia Dortmund out in the last 16 of the German Cup, Ibrahim Maza scoring the only goal in a 1-0 away win on Tuesday.

Maza’s 34th-minute strike put the 2024 cup winners on track for victory and exact instant revenge on Dortmund, who beat them 2-1 in their own backyard in the Bundesliga three days ago.

The goal was: “a bit of instinct and a bit of luck too, but that’s part of it — that’s normal in football,” Maza told Sky Germany.

Leverkusen will be joined in the quarter-finals by RB Leipzig, who beat Magdeburg 3-1 at home, along with Hertha Berlin and St Pauli, who won earlier on Tuesday.

Forlorn Dortmund defender Waldemar Anton told Sky Germany his side would “need a day or two to process” the “incredibly brutal” defeat, adding “we set ourselves high goals and we wanted to win this competition.”

Bundesliga heavyweights Dortmund and Leverkusen had met 109 times in all competitions dating back to the early 1950s, but had never faced off in the German Cup.

Dortmund had an early penalty shout waved away when former Liverpool defender Jarell Quansah held Carney Chukwuemeka inside the box.

A goalscorer in Leverkusen’s shock 2-0 Champions League win at Manchester City, the 20-year-old Maza danced through some sleepy Dortmund defence to blast his side in front.

Leverkusen netted again on the hour mark through Martin Terrier in a move started by Maza, but the strike was chalked off for a narrow offside.

 

Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi had a chance to level deep into stoppage time, but he headed inches wide of the post.

Elsewhere, Christoph Baumgartner scored twice as RB Leipzig came from a goal down to beat lowly Magdeburg.

Magdeburg, sitting dead last in the second division, took an early lead through a Silas Gnaka penalty.

Leipzig hit back with a long-range rocket from Antonio Nusa and led 2-1 at halftime after Baumgartner scored.

Assisted by Nusa, Baumgartner scored again early in the second half to see the two-time cup winners through.

Earlier on Tuesday, St Pauli broke out of their recent Bundesliga funk to win 2-1 at three-time winners Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Pauli had lost their last nine league matches, but goals from Martijn Kaars and Louis Oppie, either side of a header from Gladbach’s Haris Tabakovic, had the Hamburg-based side marching into the final eight.

In the German capital, Hertha Berlin thumped 2024 finalists Kaiserslautern 6-1, with 16-year-old Kennet Eichhorn becoming the youngest goalscorer in the competition’s history.

Bayern Munich, winners a record 20 times, play at Union Berlin on Wednesday, while holders Stuttgart are away at Bochum.

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Borussia Dortmund eliminated Eintracht Frankfurt from the German Cup in the second round on Tuesday, winning 4-2 on penalties after the match finished 1-1.

Dortmund were faultless from the spot with Fabio Silva, Niklas Suele, Carney Chukwuemeka and Felix Nmecha all converting, while Ritsu Doan and Fares Chaibi both missed penalties for the home side.

Frankfurt’s Mario Goetze and Ansgar Knauff, both cup winners with Dortmund, combined to put the home side in front after seven minutes. Goetze threaded the ball through the Dortmund defence, allowing Knauff to stroke home.

Dortmund hit back three minutes after the break, Julian Brandt tapping in a pinpoint Julian Ryerson cross from close range.

The match went to extra time, and Germany striker Jonathan Burkardt looked to have sealed it for the hosts when he scored in the 115th minute, but the strike was ruled out for offside.

In the shootout, Can Uzun and former Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi both converted for Frankfurt, but Doan blasted his attempt well over the bar.

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Chaibi needed to convert Frankfurt’s fourth kick to keep his side in with a chance, but blasted the ball straight at Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, sending the visitors to the last 16.

“We’ve got a sensational goalie and plenty of good penalty shooters. It feels nice,” Brandt told reporters.

The game was a rematch of the 2017 German Cup final, won 2-1 by Dortmund, with current Borussia coach Niko Kovac then in the Frankfurt dugout.

Two-time winners RB Leipzig cantered to a 4-1 victory at neighbours Energie Cottbus, with Johan Bakayoko and Christoph Baumgartner both scoring doubles for the visitors.

Bochum eliminated top-flight Augsburg 1-0 away, and Borussia Moenchengladbach won 3-1 at home against Karlsruhe.

Elsewhere, Hertha Berlin beat Elversberg 3-0 in the German capital, Hamburg won 1-0 at Heidenheim and second-division Holstein Kiel beat hosts Wolfsburg 1-0.

On Wednesday, 20-time winners Bayern Munich travel to Cologne while holders Stuttgart play at Mainz.

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MUNICH: Bayern Munich crashed out of the German Cup on Tuesday after Lucas Hoeler scored an injury-time penalty to earn Freiburg a 2-1 win and a place in the semi-finals. 

Nicolas Hoefler cancelled out Dayot Upamecano’s opening goal for Bayern before Hoeler converted from the spot late on after Jamal Musiala handled in the box.

Freiburg lost last year’s final on penalties to RB Leipzig but Hoeler was nerveless, converting the penalty to send his side through to the semis for the second year in a row.

Bayern failed to reach the last four for the third consecutive year. Freiburg are hoping to lift the German Cup for the first time.

New Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel made one change to the side which thrashed Dortmund 4-2 to return to the Bundesliga summit on Saturday, swapping in Manchester City loanee Joao Cancelo for Alphonso Davies.

The home side took the lead midway through the first half when France defender Upamecano rose highest to head in a Joshua Kimmich corner.

Bayern, who put the game out of Dortmund’s reach with three goals in 10 first-half minutes on Saturday, continued to press but the visitors would be next to score.

A scuffed clearance from Bayern winger Kingsley Coman fell to Hoefler, who unleashed a screamer from outside the box to level the scores.

Freiburg however continued to sit deep under pressure, managing only the occasional foray into Bayern’s half.

With the match ticking towards extra time, Musiala’s attempt to block a shot saw the ball bounce off his arm and the referee point immediately to the spot.

Freiburg forward Hoeler stepped up and whacked the ball into the top of the net, giving Yann Sommer no chance.

Bayern, who have a record 20 German Cup titles to their name, will have the opportunity to exact revenge when they head to Freiburg in the league on Saturday.

– Kolo Muani at the double –

Earlier on Tuesday, a quick-fire double from France striker Randal Kolo Muani sent Eintracht Frankfurt through semi-finals with a 2-0 home win over Union Berlin.

Kolo Muani scored two goals in two minutes early in the first half, both assisted by Mario Goetze, and Frankfurt held on despite a late Union assault.

The win kept the Europa League holders on track for what would be a sixth German Cup win, and a first since 2018.

Kolo Muani toasted his side’s “complete victory” and credited teammate Goetze, telling German TV network ZDF “he makes everyone in the team better”.

Union travelled to Frankfurt 10 points ahead of their sixth-placed Bundesliga opponents and on course for a maiden Champions League appearance.

But Frankfurt, winless in seven in all competitions, started stronger and were 2-0 up in the blink of an eye thanks to Kolo Muani.

He scored his first in the 11th minute, latching onto a Goetze back-heel and blasting past backup Union goalkeeper Lennart Grill.

Kolo Muani soon doubled the home side’s lead, lifting the ball over an out-of-position Grill and into the net.

Kolo Muani now has five goals in four Cup matches since arriving in Frankfurt from Ligue 1 side Nantes in the summer.

Freiburg and Frankfurt will be joined in the last four by the winners of Wednesday’s quarter-finals, where holders RB Leipzig host Dortmund and Stuttgart travel to second-division Nuremberg.

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