"The magic of the cup," is a phrase often heard when the minnows hand out a shock defeat to one of the established names. The DFB German Cup, featuring seeded early rounds and guaranteeing lower division sides a crack at the big boys, has traditionally thrown up a clutch of surprise results. Even mighty Bayern have not been immune to a cup upset or two over the years. Prior to Friday’s first round meeting with fourth-tier FC Carl Zeiss Jena, fcbayern.com has been looking back at the 18-time cup winners' highs and lows in the competition, uncovering one or two unwelcome memories.
4 August 1990: FV 09 Weinheim 1 Bayern 0
Munich fell embarrassingly to Weinheim in the 1990-91 first round proper as the fourth division amateurs handed their star opponents a 1-0 defeat. The man with his name in lights was Thomas "Schwechi" Schwechheimer, scorer of the decisive spot-kick past keeper Raimond Aumann.
17 August 1991: Bayern 2 FC Homburg 4 (aet)
Bayern set out the following season bent on revenge as second division Homburg visited the Olympic stadium. With the home support in full voice, no-one expected the Saarland outfit to pose insurmountable problems, but the Reds fell flat on their faces for the second season in a row. A closely-fought match went into extra time before the home side trudged off smarting from a 4-2 defeat. Brazil star Mazinho claimed a brace for the Bavarians.
14 August 1994: TSV Vestenbergsgreuth 1 Bayern 0
Two seasons later, early in the 1994-5 campaign, Bayern and new boss Giovanni Trapattoni travelled to the Nuremberg Frankenstadion, not to face their Bavarian arch-rivals but rather the minnows of TSV Vestenbergsgreuth. The lower division men humbled the world-class ensemble from the state capital as observers at the game detected no genuine difference in class between the teams. Roland Stein's winner saw the Bavarian regional league outfit safely through to the second round.
1 November 2000 – FC Magdeburg 5 Bayern 3 (aet, pso)
The last cup upset at the hands of a lower league outfit hit Bayern in the 2000-2001 season. The cup holders, away to third division Magdeburg in front of a sell-out 26,000 crowd at Ernst Grube Stadium, came under pressure and fell behind in the 66th minute to an Adolphus Ofodile strike. Hasan Salihamidzic scored the equaliser shortly after coming on as a substitute, sending the game into extra time With no further goals in the additional 30 minutes, the game went to penalties. Magdeburg keeper Miroslav Dreszer was in outstanding form, saving penalties from Jens Jeremies and Giovane Elber to seal a shock 5-3 triumph for Magdeburg. The bitter and embarrassing defeat was Bayern's fourth in ten years against rank outsiders in the early stages of the cup.
Record victory against Waldberg
As well as these setbacks, the Reds have chalked up a number of clear-cut victories in the cup first round proper, including a 10-1 success against SV Östringen (25 August 1979), 8-0 against SC Jülich (29 August 1981) and an 11-2 romp against second division Blau-Weiß Berlin (6 August 1988).
The ultimate misfortune befell sorry DJK Wallberg, who must still be shuddering with horror at the memory of their cup tie against the men from Munich on 18 August 1997. After 90 one-sided minutes, the score stood at 16-1 for Bayern, still the record margin of victory in the DFB German Cup.