Bayern’s most exciting last-16 ties in the DFB Cup

The DFB Cup has produced many unforgettable moments for Bayern down the years. From historic encounters with non-professional teams like Erkenschwick to dramatic extra-times, strange stories and brilliant goals, ties in the last 16 have gone down in memory. Here are 12 of Bayern’s most exciting fixtures in the DFB Cup round of 16.

1967: Third-tier Erkenschwick challenge young legends

The date 4 February 1967 remains a special one for the small club of Erkenschwick, as it saw Bayern arrive in the town on the edge of the Ruhr for the last 16 of the domestic cup. There were 23,800 people inside the packed Stimberg-Stadion – the biggest attendance in the ground’s history since then. Playing in the third-tier Verbandsliga, Erkenschwick were the first amateur club since the war to be among the last 16 in the cup.

Erkenschwick had surprisingly lost their league game 1-0 the week before. Nobody wanted to get injured before the Bayern encounter, as captain Karl-Heinz Seidenkranz revealed to the Stimberger Zeitung some decades later: “Everyone was shouting: ‘Erkenschwick, Erkenschwick!’ I still go weak at the knees thinking about it now.” Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck, who would go on to win the World Cup and was up against Seidenkranz that day, was impressed by the crowd. “All hell’s breaking loose with you here,” the then-19-year-old defender told the Erkenschwick striker that day. The underdogs held out for 75 minutes, with Herbert Sochacki quickly equalising after a 21-year-old Gerd Müller had scored a penalty. But Der Bomber then struck again only five minutes later. Rainer Ohlhauser added a third to make it a 3-1 win against the third-tier club.

Bayern then beat 1860 3-1 in the semis and Hamburg 4-0 in the final to lift the cup.

1972: Beckenbauer brilliance in extra-time

Franz Beckenbauer scored 74 goals in 582 games for Bayern. The Kaiser is remembered on the pitch as a fine technician with a flair, an extraordinary gift for the game that was far ahead of its time. However, the best German footballer of all time was not known for brute force on the pitch, but that is exactly what Beckenbauer unleashed in November 1972 in the last 16 of the DFB Cup against Eintracht Braunschweig.

After trailing 1-0, Bayern only managed to salvage extra-time thanks to an own goal by Braunschweig's Wolfgang Grzyb. In front of 17,000 spectators at the Grünwalder Stadion, Grzyb had previously scored to give the visitors the lead after 52 minutes. It was like an insult to the Kaiser, a playmaker accustomed to success. After 20 more goalless minutes, Franz Roth scored in the 110th minute to make it 2-1, and Beckenbauer wrapped it all just four minutes later. His powerful shot from 25 yards hit the top left-hand corner of the net “like a string being pulled”, noted Sportschau. Braunschweig goalkeeper Bernd Franke had no chance. The remarkable goal was later even voted Goal of the Month. Just one of a total of two monthly awards for the Munich native.

However, Bayern were out in the next round. Despite beating Köln 3-0 in the first leg, a 5-1 defeat in the reverse fixture saw the Bavarians out. Beckenbauer and his team had to settle just for the Bundesliga title, while he also led Germany to European Championship glory that summer.

1973: Ice-cool Katsche in the snow

Bayern would meet Werder Bremen several more times in the DFB Cup, but the very first meeting in mid-December 1973 in the round of 16 was legendary for the meteorological circumstances alone. In the sleet and snow of Bremen, the two teams fought a fierce battle. Legends Sepp Maier, Beckenbauer, Paul Breitner, Roth, Uli Hoeneß and Müller were playing for Munich under coach Udo Lattek, while Dieter Burdenski, Rudi Assauer and Horst-Dieter Höttges were representing Werder under Sepp Piontek.

It wasn't a cup tie for fine technicians, but rather a wild battle with opponents and the weather for those players who are more at home in the engine room of football. Bayern's goalscorer was a perfect match for this. ‘Katsche’ Schwarzenbeck, usually more responsible for the rough stuff in defence, scored to make it 1-0 in the 51st minute. Werner Görts equalised for Werder 15 minutes later. Substitute Conny Torstensson was the match-winner – the Swedish striker felt right at home in the cold and wet Nordic conditions and scored the winning goal for Bayern to make it 2-1. The quarter-final against Hannover also went narrowly to Bayern (3-2), although three Gerd goals had given them a reassuring 3-0 lead by the 71st minute.

In the semi-final, however, they lost to the eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt (3-2). Hoeneß and Paul Breitner had turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead. However, the equaliser and a penalty in stoppage time gave Eintracht the victory on the night.

1977: Against own reserves

In light snowfall and in front of 6,500 spectators at the Olympiastadion, both Bayern teams played for a place in the quarter-finals in January 1977. The reserves made it this far in the cup for the first time in the 1976/77 season. Shortly before that, in the 1974/75 season, the qualification system for the cup had changed, meaning ‘amateur participants’ were only eligible to play if they won the association cup. The reserves were playing in the third-highest division at the time and had defeated Dillenburg, Sportfreunde Salzgitter and Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart on their way to the round of 16. The Bayern first team first defeated Hannover’s reserves 10-0 and then won 5-1 against HSV and 10-1 against Unterboihingen.

The reserves got off to a much better start, with coach Werner Kern's team taking the lead through Wilhelm Reisinger in the 13th minute. However, a hat-trick from Müller in the space of nine first-half minutes set things right. But the second string didn’t give up so easily. Just two minutes later, Eduard Kirschner got one back. Shortly before half-time, Rainer Künkel, who had replaced the injured Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, made it 4-2 – six goals in just one half! Senior substitute goalkeeper Hubertus Licht stood in for the injured Sepp Maier from the start and played his only competitive match for Bayern. And it was certainly a memorable one. Licht made several magnificent saves to prevent the reserves from causing an upset, but he was powerless on one occasion after 76 minutes when Erhan Önal, who would later become a Turkey international, scored to make it 4-3, meaning it was Müller's turn to score his fourth goal just four minutes later to make the final score 5-3. Kicker wrote in their match report that it was clear to see how the difference in performance between professionals and amateurs had narrowed. That was also evident the following week, as Peter Gruber was promoted to the senior squad after this match and played 16 of 17 matches in the second half of the Bundesliga season. Vesley Schenk was also called up to the first team, and the then 18-year-old Klaus Augenthaler took over the libero position from Franz Beckenbauer in the 1977/78 season. However, the World Cup victory two weeks earlier in Brazil was still in the legs of some of the senior players in Bayern's internal round of 16 tie. The cup journey was then over in the quarter-finals after a 4-2 loss to Hertha Berlin after extra-time.

1984: One goal in three hours against Uerdingen

During their glory years, Bayer Uerdingen faced Bayern in the 1985 DFB Cup final. The underdogs surprisingly won 2-1, after Dieter Hoeneß had given Munich the lead after just eight minutes. Everyone thought the final would take its expected course in favour of the favourites, but coach Kalli Feldkampf's Uerdingen surprisingly turned the game around and later also beat East German champions Dynamo Dresden in the European Cup. A year earlier, the strength of the Bayer squad had already been recognised when Bayern needed two games to eliminate the underdogs in the 1984 round of 16. In the first meeting in the Ruhr, the hosts, with the only future Germany international from Uerdingen Matthias Herget on their side, fought out a 0-0 draw after 120 minutes in front of 15,300 spectators at the Grotenburg-Kampfbahn.

Two weeks later at the Olympiastadion, Uerdingen again proved to be a tough opponent for Bayern with a strong fighting spirit. After 56 minutes, though, Hansi Pflügler scored the only goal for the favourites. Bayern then stormed through to the final, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach in a thriller on penalties. A certain Lothar Matthäus missed the very first attempt for Gladbach. Bayern had already gone to penalties in the semi-final against Schalke.

1985: Lerby plays for Denmark and Bayern on same day

Some 40,000 spectators in the Ruhrstadion drove Bochum, with a young Stefan Kuntz in attack, to a strong performance against Bayern in a match that was not particularly worth seeing but was highly exciting. FCB took the lead with a penalty from Michael Rummenigge after an unnecessary foul on the edge of the penalty area but conceded an equaliser midway through the second half through Uwe Leifeld, who managed to beat Jean Marie Pfaff, who’d been excellent till then. Bayern then replaced Roland Wohlfarth in the second half with Sören Lerby, who had already played for Denmark earlier that day.

Denmark had to get at least one point against Ireland to qualify for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. “Uli Hoeneß finally had the crazy idea that I should just play both games. We could jet straight on to Bochum on the plane from Dublin after the game. Of course, that was only conceivable because of the time difference. National team coach Sepp Piontek assured Bayern that he would replace me immediately if the score was good, and Bayern coach Udo Lattek also agreed to this compromise,” Lerby once recalled in the Berliner Tagesspiegel. At the break, the score was still 1-1 in the match in Ireland, so Lerby could not yet leave. It was only when the score was 3-1 in the 58th minute at 4.15pm local time that Lerby was substituted and ran straight out of the stadium into Hoeneß's waiting car. The car was taken to the airport with a police escort, and after landing the two of them sped off to Bochum in a Porsche. “We got caught in a traffic jam in front of the Ruhrstadion. I almost went mad. I ended up running the last two kilometres to the stadium,” recalled Lerby. It was too late to play from the start, the team was already in the tunnel, and FC Bayern ultimately had to play a replay against Bochum anyway.

Five weeks later, Munich men won 2-0 with goals by Wohlfarth and, of course, Lerby. The Dane later won the cup with Bayern and also played in the World Cup in Mexico.

1996: Incredible Ziege

Just six weeks earlier, Bayern had gone down 3-0 in the league in Bremen, and now Werder were coming to Munich for the round of 16 in the cup. And the visitors picked up where they had left off six weeks ago. Marco Bode, an attacker who had just been called up to the national team, scored first for Werder – much to the horror of the 32,000 spectators inside the Olympiastadion. But fortunately Bayern had Christian Ziege that day, who had just recovered from a meniscus operation. Ziege had set up Jürgen Klinsmann's equaliser with a cross shortly before the break. “Christian is someone sometimes does something surprising,” said the later Germany coach, who also scored the third goal that day. And it came about in the 65th minute when Ziege sprinted down the entire length of the running track faster than many an athlete, “as if the football devil was breathing down his neck”, as the taz newspaper observed. This was followed by a one-two with striker Ruggiero Rizzitelli and a powerful finish under the Bremen crossbar. Oliver Reck had no chance as Giovanni Trapattoni’s men won 3-1 after trailing, but they couldn’t get beyond the quarters after defeat to Karlsruhe.

1998: Elber ruins Duisburg’s revenge

October 1998 saw a repeat of the DFB Cup final from May 1998 when Bayern had to travel to the Wedaustadion in the round of 16 to face Duisburg again. The club had a lot of anger, and not just because they had narrowly lost the final 2-1 in mid-May. Bayern had put in a “desolate first half”, according to kicker. However, Duisburg also felt they had been treated unfairly and had wanted Michael Tarnat to be sent off after a foul against their quick-fire goalscorer Salou. But there was no red card, and in the end Bayern won thanks to a very good second half and to snatch the cup from Duisburg.

Then when it came to the reunion, Duisburg led again at the break. This time it was 2-0 thanks to two goals from Markus Beierle. Bayern, who were used to playing counter-attacking football, did not come into their own, until Otmar Hitzfeld made a change and put the outstanding Jens Jeremies in front of the defence. A brace from Giovane Élber, who had just recovered from injury, finally broke Duisburg's back. The Brazilian scored twice within just four minutes and shocked the whole of Duisburg. Jeremies crowned his performance with a header from Hasan Salihamidžić's cross to take the lead and beat MSV again. This was made clear by Bixente Lizarazu, who, at just 1.69 metres tall, actually scored with a header to make the final score 4-2. Bayern would go onto lose the final on penalties to Bremen.

2022: Sand and the crossbar

A score was settled with Schalke in the round of 16 in December 2002, albeit in a match that was agonisingly uneventful for a long time. Bayern coach Hitzfeld admitted this indirectly: “Both teams played tactically clever and allowed few scoring chances. The game was dominated by the defences, both of which showed top performances.” Schalke coach Frank Neubarth agreed: “We knew that Bayern weren't going to take any risks and didn't want to run into an open knife. It can happen that a game like this. Bayern scored one more penalty and therefore deserved to win.” Der Spiegel noted: After a tussle between Michael Ballack and Sven Kmetsch, in which Darío Rodríguez also intervened, the long-missed emotions came into the game, which was played without bite. However, scoring chances remained few and far between in front of just 30,000 spectators in the Olympiastadion, and it was only when Giovane Élber came on for Claudio Pizarro that Munich's offence picked up. “We still have a score to settle with Schalke,” announced Hitzfeld, recalling the previous year's semi-final knockout. However, there was no sign of the attacking spirit and drama of the last encounters between the two rivals. It was not until the penalty shootout that the first goals were scored, with Ebbe Sand hitting the crossbar on the very first attempt for Schalke. Roque Santa Cruz's converted penalty was Schalke's first cup defeat after 18 consecutive victories and shattered their dream of a title hat-trick. Bayern won instead, beating Kaiserslautern 3-1 in the final. 

2005: Hargreaves finally beats HSV keeper

In the 2005 round of 16, the match in the Allianz Arena was Bayern versus Hamburg - or rather Bayern versus Sascha Kirschstein. The HSV goalkeeper had an outstanding day and saved numerous great chances for Bayern, who were looking good in attack. On the other hand, the visitors had little to offer in attack, with playmaker Rafael Van der Vaart ruled out for the tie. Kirschstein made saves against Philipp Lahm, Ballack and Pizarro. And when Lúcio actually headed the ball past Kirschstein in the direction of the HSV goal, Mehdi Mahdavikia cleared it on the goal line with 15 minutes to go. It seemed as if Bayern had been jinxed, as the Hamburg goalkeeper remained a rock in defence for a long time in extra-time, also saving a Ballack header as well as Paolo Guerrero's volley, and a Ballack free-kick hit the post. So it was up to Owen Hargreaves. Only substituted by coach Felix Magath after 86 minutes, the Englishman scored the golden goal seven minutes before the end of extra-time. Lúcio drove the ball towards the opposition's penalty area and played in Hargreaves, who spun and fired into the right-hand corner from a half-right position from 17 metres, unsaveable for Kirschstein. A well-deserved victory, but one that was a long time coming.

2015: Alonso unlocks Darmstadt

In the last match before Christmas 2015, Darmstadt came to the Allianz Arena as a team that had not planned an attacking spectacle against Bayern. No, the visitors wanted above all to destroy Bayern's magic, somehow keep the score at zero for as long as possible and perhaps then, in a particularly lucky moment, cause an upset. That failed, even though a lot went according to plan for Darmstadt for a long time, as coach Dirk Schuster later stated: “In the first half, you could have turned Bayern's half into a car park.” The fact that Bayern were still able to celebrate their victory in the last 16 of the DFB Cup was down to a stroke of genius from Xabi Alonso, now Bayer Leverkusen coach, five minutes before the break. “We knew Xabi could shoot,” said Thomas Müller later. “We don't really know him to score goals like that,” said Manuel Neuer. “Zero discussion,” said Alonso himself. What had happened? “I'm in a good position, had a touch. It was good,” analysed Alonso in German. His 30-yard shot into the corner was the only goal of the day against the defensive bulwark from Hesse, and it took his team into the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup, which Bayern then won on penalties against Borussia Dortmund. Alonso also scored the Goal of the Month in Germany for December 2015.

2019: When Hummels wanted to bury himself in Berlin

Niko Kovač immediately knew how FC Bayern defender Mats Hummels had felt in February 2019. “It makes you want to bury yourself somewhere,” said the Bayern coach, defending his centre-back for his serious blunder. In the 67th minute, Hummels had played a harmless pass back to goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, and Davie Selke capitalised on the moment of inattention to make it 2-2 for Hertha in the round of 16 of the 2019 DFB Cup. A slip-up that left Munich's highly superior team trembling in the capital for a long time. Stats of 74 percent possession, 23 shots on goal, 14 corners - and yet the match in Berlin went into extra-time. Even though Hertha only managed four shots on goal in 120 minutes – and just two of those were on target. Once after Hummels' carelessness, the first time through Maximilian Mittelstädt, who once again capitalised on a moment of inattention, this time from the entire visiting backline. They were still thinking about stonewall penalty for Leon Goretzka when alarms started ringing at the back. But there was no whistle. “If we want to achieve something in the cup, league or Champions League, we can't give away easy goals like that,” said Kovač about the goals conceded. On the other hand, the attack was working so well that journalists were already raving about a new Bayern winger. The dynamic Serge Gnabry scored twice. And when he was no longer able to continue, Kovač brought on Kingsley Coman. He then headed home to snatch a 3-2 win in the 98th minute after Robert Lewandowski's assist.

Read up on the facts ahead of Bayern’s 2024 encounter with Leverkusen: