All you need to know about the DFB-Pokal tie, HEBC vs Borussia Dortmund | OneFootball

Borussia Dortmund now also enter the DFB-Pokal. On Tuesday evening (1 September, 8:45 p.m.), BVB visit Hamburg Oberliga side HEBC.

Hamburg Eimsbütteler Ballspiel Club is looking forward to the biggest match in the club’s 115-year history. Around 40,000 tickets have already been sold. Due to safety regulations and huge demand, the match will not be played at Professor-Reinmüller-Platz, which has a capacity of 2,500, but at Hamburger SV’s Volksparkstadion.

Last Friday, HEBC lost 1-0 to SC Vorwärts-Wacker Billstedt in the Hamburg Oberliga, in a rematch of the regional cup final. Back in May 2026, the Eimsbüttel side had comfortably won that clash against their league rivals 5-1.

HEBC will make their DFB-Pokal debut against BVB. At the beginning of June 1953, the purple-and-whites came close to qualifying once before. More than 70 years ago, the Hamburg district club played in the third round of the northern DFB-Pokal qualification. In the knockout match against then-North Oberliga side Werder Bremen, they held out bravely for a long time (0-0 at half-time), but eventually lost 3-0.

In the history of the Volksparkstadion, HEBC are the fifth club to play a DFB-Pokal match there as “tenants.” Two years ago, 1. FC Phönix Lübeck also hosted Borussia Dortmund there in the first round. The Black and Yellows won 4-1 in front of 50,971 spectators.

BVB have to wait their turn

BVB have to wait their turn because they played against FC Bayern Munich (1-2) in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup on cup weekend. Borussia go into the match as clear favourites against HEBC, who play four divisions below them. If the amateurs manage a sensational upset against the runners-up, the team will be rewarded with a proper helping of ice cream, their league manager Stilianos Vamvakidis joked in an interview with NDR.

However, the chances of an upset are considered rather slim. Borussia have always come through the first round of the DFB-Pokal in recent years. Their last opening-round defeat remains more than 20 years ago. In the 2005/06 season, BVB lost 2-1 to then newly promoted second-division side Eintracht Braunschweig.

Photo: Getty Images

Four years earlier, the Black and Yellows suffered a 1-0 defeat to VfL Wolfsburg’s reserve team, who were still eligible to compete at the time. A complacent Dortmund side never got into the game against the fourth-tier club. Head coach Matthias Sammer left out almost all of his regular starters at the beginning, with only Christian Wörns and Lars Ricken included. Even so, there were still seven internationals on the pitch. The bitter defeat showed that even as clear favourites, you cannot afford to switch off for a single second in the DFB-Pokal.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.