DFB Pokal PLAYER RATINGS | Arminia Bielefeld 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen | OneFootball

The lowest ranked team left (Arminia Bielefeld) vs the highest ranked team left (Bayer Leverkusen), a city that doesn’t exist (expect more of this) vs a city that solely exists to produce pharmaceuticals. That’s right, Bielefeld vs Leverkusen in the DFB Pokal semi-finals.

To get to this point, Bielefeld have had to beat Union Berlin, Freiburg and Werder Bremen, while Leverkusen themselves have had a semi-difficult run, having beaten Bayern Munich and 1.FC Köln.

Leverkusen were pretty non-existent in the first half, a lot like the city of Bielefeld (2/2), it did not seem like that when they took the lead in the 16th minute after a corner was met by Jonathan Tah at the back post. Normal people would think against a third-tier side, but this was the beginning of the end of the tie, not this third-tier side. Bielefeld would reply soon after when a counter was eventually finished off by quarter-final hero Marius Wörl.

After the equaliser, die Werkself struggled with the energy that the hosts brought with them. In defence, they were too easily pushed off the ball, then in attack, they were non-existent and were unable to create anything meaningful when they had the ball. Then just before half-time, Bielefeld are awarded a free-kick and after a great delivery from Louis Oppie, the ball is converted by Maximilian Großer.

Things didn’t get any better for Leverkusen in the second half. There was a distinct Florian Wirtz-shaped hole that was missing in their squad when it came to creating chances. On top of this, it wasn’t a case of pure Leverkusen domination with no result; Bielefeld were easily going toe-to-toe with them. The hosts were just better in every aspect of the game; to put it basically, they wanted it more, a lot more.

Unbelievable, incredible, unfassbar, beyond belief, hard-to-believe, improbable, implausible.

To be honest, I don’t have words to really describe it any more, the DFB-Pokal today showed why it is the best cup competition in the world. This is why we all love football and competitions like this.

(This win may put Bielefeld on the map, literally)

Arminia Bielefeld:

Jonas Kersken (7), Felix Hagmann (7), Leon Schneider (7), Stefano Russo (7), Louis Oppie (7), Sam Schreck (6), Maximilian Großer (7), Mael Croboz (6), Noah-Joel Sarenren-Bazee (6), Joel Grodowski (6), Marius Wörl (7)

Others: Merveille Biankadi (-), Isaiah Young (-), Joel Felix (-)

Bayer Leverkusen:

Lukas Hradecky (5), Nordi Mukiele (5), Jonathan Tah (5), PIero Hincapié (3), Jeremie Frimpong (5), Granit Xhaka (5), Robert Andrich (5), Exequiel Palacios (4), Alejandro Grimaldo (5), Amine Adli (4), Patrik Schick (4)

Others: Victor Boniface (5), Nathan Tella (5)

GGFN Man of the Match: Arminia Bielefeld.

Genuinely, I could give this to everyone on the Bielefeld side. They were all much better than their Bundesliga counterparts. People probably wrote them off, but they turned up today and will get a fun day in Berlin at the end of May and with the way they played today, they can probably even dream of winning the competition.

“Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin.”

GGFN | Jack Meenan