The 2021 DFB-Pokal Final decided the winner of the

2020–21 DFB-Pokal The 2020–21 DFB-Pokal was the 78th season of the annual German football cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 11 Se ...

, the 78th season of the annual German football cup competition. The match was played on Thursday, 13 May 2021 (on the

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, a German public holiday) at the

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. The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, 22 May 2021, but was moved to an earlier date prior to the completion of the league season in Germany. This was due to fixture density caused by the late start of the season, originating from the postponement of the end of the previous season as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. As with other competitions, the match was played behind closed doors without any spectators. The match featured

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bul ...

and

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

. Dortmund won the final 4–1 for their fifth

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

title. Due to the scheduling change, the match was the first DFB-Pokal final since

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to be played prior to the end of the league season, and the first final since

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to not be played on a Saturday. Additionally, it was the first final not played on a weekend since

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, which was also the only prior final played on a Thursday. As winners, Borussia Dortmund featured in the 2021 edition of the DFL-Supercup at the start of the following season, and facing the champion of the 2020–21 edition of the

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, Bayern Munich. The winner of the DFB-Pokal also earns automatic qualification for the group stage of the 2021–22 edition of the

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. However, as Dortmund already qualified for the 2021–22 edition of the

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through their position in the Bundesliga, the spot went to the team in sixth, and the league's

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play-off round spot went to the team in seventh.

Teams

''In the following table, finals until 1943 were in the Tschammerpokal era, since 1953 were in the DFB-Pokal era.''

Background

Route to the final

The DFB-Pokal began with 64 teams in a

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

knockout cup competition. There were a total of five rounds leading up to the final. Teams were drawn against each other, and the winner after 90 minutes would advance. If still tied, 30 minutes of extra time was played. If the score was still level, a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

was used to determine the winner. ''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).''

Match

Details

Notes

References

External links

*
Match report
at kicker.de
Match report
at WorldFootball.net
Match report
at Fussballdaten.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Dfb-Pokal Final 2021

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2020–21 in German football cups RB Leipzig matches Borussia Dortmund matches Football competitions in Berlin May 2021 sports events in Germany 2021 in Berlin