Nöttingen cup clash: Facts and stats
FC Bayern start this season's DFB Cup away to FC Nöttingen on Sunday at 4 pm. It is the 73rd German cup competition -- and with 17 triumphs FC Bayern are by far the record cup winners. fcbayern.de collected numerous other facts in readiness for the DFB Cup start:
64 starters
64 teams in total contest the first round this weekend: the 36 Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 teams, 10 from the third division, 13 from the fourth-tier Regionalliga and five from the fifth-tier Oberliga -- including Bayern's opponents FC Nöttingen. The only fifth-tier team in cup history to get through to the second round were SSV Ulm: they downed then Bundesliga team FC Nürnberg 2-1 on 26 August 2001.
Bayern v Nöttingen
It is the first encounter between the Reds and FC Nöttingen. The fifth-tier side qualified for the first round by winning the North Baden Cup. Nöttingen are competing in the DFB Cup for the third time. They lost in the first round to Hannover 96 (6-1) in 2012 and to Schalke (2-0) in 2013.
Bayern v fifth-tier
FC Bayern have encountered fifth-tier teams four times in the DFB Cup, never showing any weaknesses: the Bavarians won by a margin of at least four goals each time. The accumulated goal difference is 31-1. The 16-1 win over fifth-tier DJK Waldberg in the 1997-98 season is the highest score by an away team in cup history to this day.
Wittwer and the cup
Michael Wittwer has been coaching FC Nöttingen since 2010 -- and he is a genuine cup expert. His lads got through to the North Baden Cup final every time with him as their coach, five times in total, winning it twice. As a player Wittwer reached the DFB Cup final with Karlsruher SC in 1996, but lost 1-0 to FC Kaiserslautern. Former FCB men Michael Tarnat, Thorsten Fink and Manfred Bender were his team-mates back then.
Wittwer and FC Bayern
Wittwer played 145 Bundesliga matches for KSC between 1989 and 1998. He came up against FC Bayern eight times -- and his personal record is a good one with 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses, 15 goals scored and 16 conceded.
Bayern and the first round
It was only back in the early nineties that the first round of the DFB Cup (staged since 1953) proved a problem for FC Bayern. The men from Munich fell in the first round in 1990 (a 1-0 reverse away to FV 09 Weinheim), in 1991 (a 4-2 extra-time loss to FC Homburg) and in 1994 (a 1-0 defeat in Vestenbergsgreuth). In the last six seasons FCB have reached at least the semi-final.
The cup and goal-line technology
The DFB Cup final last May marked the debut of goal-line technology. From this season on the system will be implemented in the Bundesliga and in the DFB Cup -- if the stadium is equipped with it. This is the case for the 18 stadiums of the Bundesliga teams, but they do not play at home in the first round.
Kampka in charge
Dr Robert Kampka will be the referee in Karlsruhe's Wildparkstadion on Sunday afternoon. The 33-year-old doctor from Mainz takes charge of a Bayern game for the first time. His assistants are Thomas Gorniak and Jonas Weickenmeier, with Robert Kempter as the fourth official.