Second division football team FC St. Pauli wants to reach the semi-finals of the DFB Cup against league rivals Düsseldorf for the second time in the club’s history. Hamburg are favorites, but coach Fabian Hürzeler calls for improvements compared to the win at Fortuna on Saturday.
The coach is aware of the scope and importance of the quarter-final game in the DFB Cup for his club. “You can get to the semi-finals. That’s something big we can achieve,” said the FC St. Pauli coach. Just three days after the 2-1 win at Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday evening, the neighborhood club now welcomes the Rhinelanders.
“We play at home and have our fans behind us.”
— St. Paulis midfielder Marcel Hartel
Floodlights, 30,000 fans, Millerntor – St. Pauli is the favorite against Düsseldorf today (8:45 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter). “Of course we’re playing good football at the moment,” said Hürzeler, but he still sees potential “to do things better.” But no team in the league is already doing a better job of maintaining the balance between Sturm und Drang on offense and defensive stability. No wonder that St. Pauli set a second division record against Düsseldorf with a total of 134.04 kilometers run.
The “long-running” Hürzeler team are hoping for more cup games this season after Tuesday. Midfielder Marcel Hartel, who leads the league’s scorers list with eleven goals and nine assists, is excited for “a very special game. We can get into the semi-finals,” said the 28-year-old, hoping for a big trump card: “We’re playing at home and have our fans behind us.”
Second semi-final after 2006?
Against Düsseldorf, Hamburg can move into the round of the last four teams for the second time after 2006. At that time they were eliminated 3-0 against FC Bayern Munich. In the cup season so far, they have prevailed against upper division team Atlas Delmenhorst, second division rivals FC Schalke 04 and regional division club FC Homburg.
So now part two of the Fortuna Festival for the FCSP. The chances of reaching the semi-finals – and perhaps even more – were nowhere near as good as they were this season. For the first time in 20 years, only three first division teams are represented in the quarter-finals – Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart. And the Swabians have to play against the Bundesliga leader on Wednesday.
So it’s quite possible that at least one lower-class club will be in the spotlight this summer – and rake in a lot of money. Because just reaching the semi-finals brings the participant almost 3.5 million euros. And in the event of participation in the final in Berlin last season, the loser received another 2.9 million euros and the winner 4.3 million euros.
“I’m incredibly excited.”
— Fortuna coach Daniel Thioune
Of course, the Rhinelanders also want to seize their opportunity. “I’m incredibly excited,” said Fortuna coach Daniel Thioune before the reunion with St. Pauli: “We want to flip the switch now. My players will do everything to ensure that Fortuna gets into a DFB Cup again after 28 years -can move into the semi-finals.”
On Monday, Fortuna announced two new additions to strengthen the team: attacker Marlon Mustapha (Como 1907) and defender Joshua Quarshie (TSG Hoffenheim). It is still unclear whether the two are already an option for the game at Millerntor.
Who is in goal: Vasilj or Burchert?
On the other hand, Thioune’s counterpart Hürzeler is also concerned with personnel questions before the second duel within four days – but only in the goalkeeper position: When asked whether Sascha Burchert would be in goal instead of Nikola Vasilj, the 30-year-old replied that “everything is possible”. . Otherwise, the coach can access almost all of the regular players.
Only Connor Metcalfe and Jackson Irvine are still at the Asian Cup with Australia. On Sunday they beat Indonesia 4-0 in the round of 16. For your club coach, progressing in the cup is not a sure-fire success despite the convincing success in Düsseldorf in the league.
Hürzeler wants to see improvements in pressing
He didn’t want to be blinded by results, especially since after the game on Saturday he particularly criticized his team’s pressing behavior: “We opened up certain spaces that we wanted to close.” At times his team was too passive. “These are all small things that we have to fix.” Little things that could lead to something big in the end.
Incidentally, the encounter between St. Pauli and Fortuna has only taken place once in the cup: in August 1991 in the second round. At that time, the Bundesliga team from Düsseldorf beat second division club St. Pauli 2-1. At the end of the same season, for the first and only time, a second division team was able to lift the trophy: Hannover 96.
St. Pauli and Düsseldorf fight on Tuesday to get one step closer to this history repeating itself.
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Sports current | 01/30/2024 | 11:25 p.m
