Pre-Match Report
DFB-Pokal facts: Borussia and the revenge for 38
The scenario: FIt will be the first competitive match of 2024/25 for Borussia Dortmund but the fourth for Phönix Lübeck. After their Landespokal elimination away to VfB Lübeck in the derby (2-1 defeat) and their opening-game loss in Lohne in the Regionalliga Nord (2-0 loss), the fourth-tier outfit from Schleswig-Holstein got their first win of the season last weekend by beating VfB Oldenburg 3-1.
Cup history: Thanks to their victory in the Landespokal Schleswig-Holstein (3-1 against SV Todesfelde in the final), Phönix Lübeck are taking part in the DFB-Pokal for the second time. The club lost 2-0 to Eintracht Bad Kreuznach in the 1976/77 season. Borussia Dortmund are involved in this competition for the 64th time. Their most recent elimination in the first round came in Nuri Sahin’s first professional season: BVB, then coached by Bert van Marwijk, lost 2-1 to then and now second-tier outfit Eintracht Braunschweig in rather unusual circumstances (the floodlight went out on two occasions). Sahin sat on the bench for 90 minutes. The last time Borussia Dortmund lost to a fourth-division side was 23 years ago (1-0 away to VfL Wolfsburg II under Matthias Sammer in 2001).
Head-to-head: There has in fact already been one meeting between the two clubs. In 1938, Phönix Lübeck won 2-1 against Borussia Dortmund at the Rote Erde in the first round of the “Tschammer-Pokal”. That season, the Lübeck outfit got as far as the round of 16 in the predecessor competition to the current DFB-Pokal.
Cup records: BVB have won the DFB-Pokal five times – only FC Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen have lifted the cup more frequently (20 and six times respectively). Borussia have reached the final seven times in the last 16 years (since 2008) – most recently in 2021.
The opposition: Phönix Lübeck played top-flight football for three seasons in the 1950s (back then it was called the Oberliga Nord) and were then consistently active in the second-tier Regionalliga from 1967 until the introduction of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974. Following the turn of the millennium, they dropped down as far as the seventh tier. It was only in 2020 that they returned to the now fourth-tier Regionalliga. Phönix claimed a strong third-place finish in that division last season, ending the campaign with the second-best attack (84 goals scored) and the second-best defence (40 goals conceded).