Second division club SV Darmstadt 98 caused a sensation at the start of the second round of the DFB Cup on Tuesday. The southern Hesse defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach. More surprises followed on Wednesday. The second division rehearsed the uprising.

Bundesliga side Werder Bremen flew out of the DFB Cup in a penalty thriller at SC Paderborn without the suspended striker Marvin Ducksch. The promoted team failed at their former league rivals 4: 5 (2: 2, 2: 2, 0: 2) on penalties. For a long time Werder were without penetrating power in attack, only an increase in performance in the second half gave the team of coach Ole Werner the extra time. In front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out Paderborn stadium, goalkeeper Leopold Zingerle saved Werder’s Leonardo Bittencourt penalty, Richmond Tachie converted the decisive try for Paderborn.

In regular time, Bremen had equalized the Paderborn hits by Felix Platte (22nd) and Sirlord Conteh (43rd) through substitute Bittencourt (65th minute) and Mitchell Weiser (85th). In extra time, a missed goal from Bremen by Niclas Füllkrug (119th) caused a stir. Substitute Fabio Chiarodia is said to have previously fouled his Paderborn opponent. A questionable decision.

Before the game, Werder coach Werner felt compelled to weaken his team against the strong prospects for promotion from the lower house. According to Werder, Füllkrug’s strike partner Ducksch had missed appointments at the weekend and was therefore not in the squad for “disciplinary reasons”. That didn’t do Bremen’s game any good at first. With the Scotsman Oliver Burke in his starting XI debut for the Bundesliga club, however, Bremen was not dangerous for a long time. It only got exciting in the second half after Bittencourt’s deflected shot to score the goal.

Weiser headed Bremen, who were now fighting, into overtime against Paderborn, who were clearly slacking off. Previously, Paderborn had dominated the action, but missed the win in regular time. Coach Lukas Kwasniok’s team played right from the start against Werder as they had in the league since the start of the season: carefree, straightforward and extremely self-confident. In addition, there were significant defensive problems for the Hanseatic League.

Even the leadership of the SCP would have been defendable. At first the counterattack protection didn’t work, after that Anthony Jung in particular didn’t intervene decisively. The defender was also substituted at half-time. With the lead, the self-confidence of the second division team grew even more. Paderborn played intensively as usual and attacked early, Werder continued to make mistakes in defence. Paderborn made it 2-0 before the break. Again the Bremen defense did not look good. Captain Milos Veljkovic didn’t go into the tackle at all and goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka didn’t seem determined enough either.

At half-time, Werder coach Werner tried everything again, first making two substitutions and after a good hour Bittencourt, who scored shortly afterwards. An intense battle then developed, in which it finally looked more like a Werder victory until extra time. Paderborn’s supposed winning goal in the 119th minute didn’t count because of a foul, so the decision in the duels came from the point.

Three days after the 5-0 defeat at FC Bayern Munich, SC Freiburg came back with a sense of achievement and made it through to the last 16 of the DFB Cup with a lot of effort. Last year’s finalist defeated the second division soccer team FC St. Pauli 2-1 (1-1, 0-1) after extra time on Wednesday.

Lukas Daschner put Hamburg in the lead in the 42nd minute. After Matthias Ginter equalized (90.3), Michael Gregoritsch (119.) turned the game around in favor of the Bundesliga side.

“That was very important for morale, for the head – especially after Munich,” said goal scorer Ginter. In contrast, there was disappointment at St. Pauli. “That is bitter. Kudos to the team for how they performed today. We can take a lot of positive things with us,” said coach Timo Schultz.

Freiburg coach Christian Streich had rotated properly after the bankruptcy in the Bundesliga top game last Sunday and changed his starting eleven to seven positions. In front of 33,500 spectators, U21 national keeper Noah Atubolu, who usually plays for the third division team, was in goal for the SC professionals for the first time this season.

From the initial formation in Munich, only the defensive veterans Christian Günter and Ginter, midfielder Maximilian Eggestein and offensive man Ritsu Doan remained. St. Pauli, who had to do without the suspended Manolis Saliakas and the injured Jakov Medic defensively, started with three new players – including the long-standing conspicuous striker Daschner.

For about half an hour, very little happened in both penalty areas. Like last time against HSV, the guests relied on a chain of three and five and hardly gave Freiburg any chances. At the other end, debutant Atubolu first held his foot against Etienne Amenyido (37′), but five minutes later he had no chance. After a mistake by Freiburg defender Keven Schlotterbeck, Daschner ran towards the goal alone, stayed cool and lobbed the outsider’s lead.

Streich reacted and made four changes at the break. Freiburg now acted more aggressively, but initially they were still rarely compelling. After St. Pauli’s Amenyido had given away the possible 2-0 against Atubolu (55th), SC increased the pressure in the final phase of regulation time – and equalized with Ginter’s header from close range.

In the extra time, Freiburg were the better team, substitute Gregoritsch created much more danger than his predecessor Nils Petersen. Freiburg got the lucky punch two minutes before the end. After a corner from Grifo, Ginter extended his head to Gregoritsch, who nodded off to victory.

Just like in the Europa League, where they are already safely in the knockout phase, the Badeners will hibernate again in the cup. The competition is over for St. Pauli, who only failed in the quarter-finals last season at 1. FC Union Berlin.

With a hard-fought win in the penalty-kick thriller against Karlsruher SC, second division club SV Sandhausen made it into the round of 16 of the DFB Cup for the first time since the 2016/17 season. Almost 10:9 (2:2, 2:2, 2:0) after penalties, the hosts defeated KSC on Wednesday after an initially playful 2:0 lead. KSC defender Marcel Franke failed with his unplaced penalty shot by substitute SVS goalkeeper Nikolai Rehnen. All shooters before had hit.

After an own goal by KSC defender Stephan Ambrosius (8th minute) and a successful long-range shot by Alexander Schirow (44th), it looked like the SVS would progress quite confidently for almost an hour. But thanks to a converted hand penalty from Marvin Wanitzek (58th) and a long-range shot from Tim Breithaupt (72nd), KSC equalized the second division duel in front of 8644 spectators.

For Sandhausen, which is only about 45 kilometers away from Karlsruhe, the game against the slightly favored league rivals had started well. When trying to clear a harmless cross from Philipp Ochs, KSC central defender Ambrosius lifted the ball over goalkeeper Marius Gersbeck into his own goal. Franke played alongside the Ghanaian from the start just a week after his stem cell donation.

A mistake by the 29-year-old almost conceded a second goal a few minutes later: Franke, who apart from that played a good game, hit over the ball. SVS offensive player Christian Kinsombi missed the chance to make it 2-0. That happened shortly before the break, when substitute captain Schirow executed with his left hand from around 20 meters after Gersbeck’s fist defense failed.

Last season, KSC only lost on penalties in the quarter-finals at Hamburger SV. This time, the hand penalty caused by Merveille Papela and Breithaupt’s celebrated 2:2 caused excitement.

RB Leipzig – Hamburger SV 4: 0

Stuttgarter Kickers – Eintracht Frankfurt 0:2

Waldhof Mannheim – 1. FC Nürnberg 0:1

VfB Lübeck – Mainz 05 0: 3

TSG Hoffenheim – Schalke 04 5:1

Eintracht Braunschweig – VfL Wolfsburg 1:2

SV Elversberg – VfL Bochum 0:1

Darmstadt 98 – Borussia Mönchengladbach 2:1

Hannover 96 – Borussia Dortmund 0:2

SC Freiburg – FC St. Pauli 2:1 n.V.

SV Sandhausen – Karlsruher SC 10: 9 on penalties

SC Paderborn – Werder Bremen 7:6 n.E.

FC Augsburg – FC Bayern Munich

VfB Stuttgart-Arminia Bielefeld

1. FC Union Berlin – 1. FC Heidenheim

Jahn Regensburg – Fortuna Düsseldorf

SC Freiburg

TSG Hoffenheim

Eintracht Frankfurt

Borussia Dortmund

RB Leipzig

Mainz 05

VfL Wolfsburg

VfL Bochum

Darmstadt 98

SC Paderborn

1. FC Nürnberg

SV Sandhausen