The 2018–19
DFB-Pokal
The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...
was the 76th season of the annual German
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
cup competition. Sixty-four teams participated in the competition, including all teams from the previous year's
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
and the
2. Bundesliga. The competition began on 17 August 2018 with the first of six rounds and ended on 25 May 2019 with the final at the
Olympiastadion in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, a nominally neutral venue, which has hosted the final since 1985.
The DFB-Pokal is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. The DFB-Pokal is run by the
German Football Association
The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...
(DFB).
The defending champions were
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
side
Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...
, after they defeated
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...
3–1 in the
previous final. Frankfurt were knocked out of the competition in the first round by
fourth-division side
SSV Ulm
SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL e.V., commonly known as SSV Ulm 1846 or SSV Ulm, is a German football club based in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg. SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL was formed on 7 March 2009 as new independent club through the separation of the football ...
, losing 1–2.
Bayern Munich won the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...
3–0 against
RB Leipzig
RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...
for their 19th title. With the win, Bayern completed their 12th domestic double, and therefore played away to
2018–19 Bundesliga runners-up
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...
in the
2019 DFL-Supercup in August 2019. Because Bayern qualified for the Champions League through the Bundesliga, the sixth-place team in the Bundesliga,
VfL Wolfsburg
Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...
, earned qualification for the group stage of the
2019–20 edition of the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
, and the league's third second round spot went to the team in seventh, Eintracht Frankfurt.
Participating clubs
The following 64 teams qualified for the competition:
Format
Participation
The DFB-Pokal began with a round of 64 teams. The 36 teams of the
Bundesliga
The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...
and
2. Bundesliga, along with the top four finishers of the
3. Liga
The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga.
The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...
, automatically qualified for the tournament. Of the remaining slots, 21 were given to the cup winners of the regional football associations, the ''
Verbandspokal
A Verbandspokal (English: "association cup") is a regional men's association football competition in Germany. There are 21 Verbandspokal competitions which function as qualifying tournaments for the following season's DFB-Pokal, the premier Germ ...
''. The three remaining slots were given to the three regional associations with the most men's teams, which at the time were Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and Westphalia. The runners-up of the
Lower Saxony Cup
The Lower Saxony Cup () is an annual football cup competition, held by the () since 1956. For sponsorship reasons, the official name of the competition is Krombacher-Pokal.[Regionalliga Bayern
The Regionalliga Bayern () is the highest association football league in the state of Bavaria () and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of five Regionalligas in German football, the fourth tier of the German football league system, b ...]
. For Westphalia, the winners of a play-off between the best-placed team of the
Regionalliga West
The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...
and
Oberliga Westfalen
The Oberliga Westfalen is the highest level football league in the region of Westphalia, which is part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The league existed from 1978 to 2008, but was then replaced by the NRW-Liga, a new statewide league. W ...
also qualified. As every team was entitled to participate in local tournaments which qualified for the association cups, every team could in principle compete in the DFB-Pokal. Reserve teams and combined football sections were not permitted to enter, along with no two teams of the same association or corporation.
Draw
The draws for the different rounds were conducted as following:
For the first round, the participating teams were split into two pots of 32 teams each. The first pot contained all teams which qualified through their regional cup competitions, the best four teams of the 3. Liga, and the bottom four teams of the 2. Bundesliga. Every team from this pot was drawn to a team from the second pot, which contained all remaining professional teams (all the teams of the Bundesliga and the remaining fourteen 2. Bundesliga teams). The teams from the first pot were set as the home team in the process.
The two-pot scenario was also applied for the second round, with the remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) in the first pot and the remaining Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga teams in the other pot. Once again, the 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) served as hosts. This time the pots did not have to be of equal size though, depending on the results of the first round. Theoretically, it was even possible that there could be only one pot, if all of the teams from one of the pots from the first round had beat all the others in the second pot. Once one pot was empty, the remaining pairings were drawn from the other pot with the first-drawn team for a match serving as hosts.
For the remaining rounds, the draw was conducted from just one pot. Any remaining 3. Liga and/or amateur team(s) were the home team if drawn against a professional team. In every other case, the first-drawn team served as hosts.
Match rules
Teams met in one game per round. Matches took place for 90 minutes, with two halves of 45 minutes each. If still tied after regulation, 30 minutes of
extra time
Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...
were played, consisting of two periods of 15 minutes each. If the score was still level after this, the match was decided by 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 ...
. A coin toss would decide who took the first penalty.
A total of seven players were allowed to be listed on the substitute bench, with up to three substitutions being allowed during regulation. After approval by the
IFAB
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is an international self-regulatory body of association football that is known for determining the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, the regulations for the gameplay o ...
in 2016, the use of a fourth substitute was allowed in extra time as part of a pilot project. From the quarter-finals onward, a
video assistant referee
The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...
was appointed for all DFB-Pokal matches. Though technically possible, VAR was not used for home matches of Bundesliga clubs prior to the quarter-finals in order to provide a uniform approach to all matches.
Suspensions
If a player received five yellow cards in the competition, he was then suspended from the next cup match. Similarly, receiving a second yellow card suspended a player from the next cup match. If a player received a direct red card, they were suspended a minimum of one match, but the German Football Association reserved the right to increase the suspension.
Champion qualification
The winners of the DFB-Pokal earned automatic qualification for the group stage of
next year's edition of the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
. As winners
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...
had already qualified for the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...
by winning the Bundesliga, the spot went to the team in sixth place,
VfL Wolfsburg
Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...
, and the league's second qualifying round spot went to the team in seventh place,
Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...
. As Bayern won both the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, completing a double, the runners-up of the Bundesliga,
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...
, hosted the
2019 DFL-Supercup at the start of the next season.
Schedule

All draws were held at the
German Football Museum in
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
, on a Sunday evening at 18:00 after each round (unless noted otherwise). The draws were televised on
ARD's ''
Sportschau
''Sportschau'' is a German sports magazine on broadcaster ARD, produced by WDR in Cologne. The magazine started in 1961. In its Saturday edition, the ''Sportschau'' shows a summary of the Bundesliga, whereas the Sunday edition reports on the l ...
'', broadcast on
Das Erste
Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...
. From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw for the
DFB-Pokal der Frauen also generally took place at the same time.
The rounds of the 2018–19 competition were scheduled as follows:
Matches
A total of sixty-three matches took place, starting with the first round on 17 August 2018 and culminating with the final on 25 May 2019 at the
Olympiastadion in Berlin.
Times up to 27 October 2018 and from 31 March 2019 are
CEST (
UTC+2
UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00.
As standard time (year-round)
Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...
). Times from 28 October 2018 to 30 March 2019 are
CET
CET or cet may refer to:
Places
* Cet, Albania
* Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus
* Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Comcast En ...
(
UTC+1
+01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in:
*Central European Time
* West Africa Time
* Western European Summer Time
**Brit ...
).
First round
The draw for the first round was held on 8 June 2018 at 22:00, with
Palina Rojinski drawing the matches. The thirty-two matches took place from 17 to 20 August 2018.
Second round
The draw for the second round was held on 26 August 2018 at 18:00, with
Gina Lückenkemper drawing the matches. The sixteen matches took place from 30 to 31 October 2018.
Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 4 November 2018 at 18:00, with Serdal Celebi drawing the matches. The eight matches took place from 5 to 6 February 2019.
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 10 February 2019 at 18:15, with
Fabian Böhm drawing the matches. The four matches took place from 2 to 3 April 2019.
Semi-finals
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 7 April 2019 at 18:00, with
Lena Goeßling drawing the matches. The two matches took place on 23 and 24 April 2019.
----
Final
The final took place on 25 May 2019 at the
Olympiastadion in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
Bracket
The following is the bracket which the DFB-Pokal resembled. Numbers in parentheses next to the match score represent the results of 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 ...
.
Top goalscorers
The following were the top scorers of the DFB-Pokal, sorted first by number of goals, and then alphabetically if necessary. Goals scored in penalty shoot-outs are not included.
Broadcasting rights
In Germany, all matches and a simulcast (''Konferenz'') channel were broadcast live on pay TV via
Sky Sport. Selected matches from the first round to the quarter-finals, along with highlights from all matches, were broadcast on free TV by
Das Erste
Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...
's ''
Sportschau live'' from
ARD. Both semi-final matches and the final were broadcast by both Das Erste and Sky Sport.
The following matches were broadcast live on ARD:
Notes
References
External links
*
DFB-Pokal on kicker.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dfb-Pokal 2018-19
2018-19
2018–19 in German football cups